Mumbai Crime: Man robbed in 2016 stuck with demonetised cash

Advocate Sunil Pandey

Demonetisation continues to harass the common man even seven years after it crash-landed on the country. A man whose hotel was robbed before demonetisation and has finally got back the cash recovered by the police, is struggling to get the old notes exchanged. The victim's lawyer claims that police negligence and lack of clarity in the government order is still causing trouble for the common man.

Mustafa Nayikanlithing, 50, filed a case of robbery in 2016 against several people who barged into his hotel. The police arrested a few accused and seized Rs 1,10,000 in cash. The complainant later approached court for the return of the property in 2019 and the magistrate court in south Mumbai ordered the Colaba police station to complete all formalities and return the cash to the victim in new currency after getting it exchanged as per the central government notification.

"The investigating officer instead of getting the new currency, simply handed over the old currency to my client and RBI officials at the demonetisation counter rejected his request," said Advocate Sunil Pandey. "I fought with RBI officials and told them to give me the government's notification stating the exact requirement of documents and orders from the court in such legal cases. They later gave me the notification and we approached the court again."

Pandey told mid-day, "The complainant in this case has been running from pillar to post only because of the negligence of the police and the lack of clarity in the government notification." "Now the question arises, how many such victims may have been struggling with such a process. The government and RBI must clear on this aspect as the law does not speak clearly and the common man suffers," Pandey added.

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"It's been six years and I am yet to get the money back despite getting an order from the court. I was turned back by RBI officials first saying that currency numbers were not mentioned in the order and the cash amount should come from the police. Whose fault is this ? First, we have been forced to stand in long queues, now I am running from pillar to post due to the negligence of the police and RBI," the complainant said. On February 9, additional chief metropolitan magistrate passed a fresh order directing RBI to refund the cash amount in new currency. The court mentioned the number of the old currency notes seized by police during the panchnama in 2016.

Government notification, 2017

Where specified bank notes have been confiscated or seized by law enforcement agencies or produced before court on before 30th December 2016, such bank note may be tendered, at any office of the Reserve Bank specified under sub section (1) section 4 of the Act or a nationalised bank designated by the reserve bank for the said purpose, for deposit in a bank account or exchange of the value thereof with legal tender subject to the following conditions namely: (a) in case confiscated specific bank notes are returned by the court to a person who a party in a case pending before that court, then, person shall be entitled, on production of the direction of the court, deposit or exchange such specified bank notes, the serial numbers of which (i) have been noted by the law enforcement agency which confiscated or produced them before the court and, (ii) are mentioned in the direction of the court.