By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, December 4, 2016 : Odisha police on Sunday busted a scrapped currency exchange racket and seized more than Rs 1.42 crore.

The police also arrested eight persons in this connection. A bank official accused to be part of the racket is among the arrested persons.

Acting on a tip-off, police frisked vehicles at Dhanupali on the outskirts of the town. “We have seized nearly Rs 1.42 crore from a vehicle. Among the seized amount, Rs 85 lakh are mostly of Rs 2000 denomination. Apart from this, Rs 24 lakh scrapped notes have been seized,” Sambalpur SP Akhileswar Singh told reporters at Sambalpur.

In toto, Rs 1, 42, 91, 500 was seized from the car and a house here. Of the seized amount, Rs 85, 62, 000 was in new currency and Rs 25, 29, 000 in old currency. The seized currencies belong to local liquor businessman Zerayat Ali. Apart from Ali, his three sons – Qazzafi, Riftat and Sabteen – SBI Main Branch PRO Rashmi Ranjan Rout and his brother Pankaj Rout, Ravi Trivedi and Kapil Jhajharia have been arrested, police said.

“Around 25%-30% commission is being charged for exchange of old notes for new. We are further investigating on how they were arranging money,” he added saying that involvement of more bank officials cannot be ruled out, the police said.

Police also seized two revolvers and five rounds of bullet.

Meanwhile, police wrote to the Income Tax department to probe the matter.