Bhatkal: The notes of Rs 2,000 amounting to Rs 35 lakh which were seized by the town police at Sagar Road from Subrahmanya Vasappa Gowda, a resident of Malali in Hosanagar taluk, Shivamogga district and his accomplices on Tuesday has been handed over to the Income Tax officers in Mangaluru and the investigations are being carried out in this regard.
A team comprising of deputy director of investigation department of income tax Subhash, inspector Seju and Anil Kumar reached Bhatkal on Tuesday late night and received vital details from the local police officials here. DySp Promod Rao and CPI Suresh Naik were present at the instance.
According to the sources, the main accused Subrahmanya is the president of the Kubera Multipurpose Co-operative Society of Hosanagar. He is an under trail in more than four criminal cases in Bengaluru and Shivamogga. As per the sources, the accused with a huge amount comprising of new notes had reached Bhatkal from Kolur and had halted at a hotel near bus stand for food. The police, following a tip-off, reached Sagar Road and stopped the vehicle. After inspection the police found the currency notes stocked in a gunny bag. The suspects could not produce proper records for the money they were transporting.
Shocked over the arrival of police, the victims tried to convince police for giving them a chance to transfer black money into white by paying 50% penalty as per the guidelines of RBI. Sources have also said that the victims also tried to get away from police custody by bribing half the amount from Rs 35 lakhs to police, but the police who were confused over the earlier incident of Sarpankatta, without taking any further risks took the victims directly to the police station and filed a case.
Speaking to Sahilonline, the lawyer of the accused Virender Kumar has said that the amount which was present with Subrahmanya was not the black money. In his clarification, the lawyer has said that his client was a president of co-operative society named Kubera which has more than 40 branches across the state. With this fact, his client has the permission to transport money and also informed that they have presented their statement in front of the income tax officer.