The security personnel and the Income Tax department officials had a bizarre mystery of ‘vanishing’ cash to solve after a hefty amount of Rs 3.5 crore went missing from Dimapur airport in Nagaland on Tuesday.
After frantic searches, the cash was found by the IT officials at the premises of a Dimapur businessman. Not only that, they impounded another Rs 4.47 crore in demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bills.
On Tuesday morning, a tip-off was received from the Intelligence Bureau that a passenger, on a chartered flight from Hissar to Dimapur, was carrying a huge sum of money.
The cash, in old but crisp Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, was immediately seized from a Bihar-based businessman named Amarjit Singh after the flight landed, but it soon disappeared. The local IT officials have reportedly claimed that the cash “was with the security officers all along”.
Involvement of Bigwigs?
According to earlier reports, the money was taken away by the relatives of “an influential” Nagaland politician. A source told Times of India that Singh informed the CISF personnel that “someone big” from Delhi had sent money for a local businessman.
The tax exemptions offered to the Scheduled Tribes in north-eastern region can be used fraudulently to launder cash.
(With inputs from Times of India and PTI)
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