'Foreign notes found in Nashik are outdated'

A good quantity of the foreign currency notes found in Prasoon Agarwal alias Abhay Bansal's residence in Nashik on Monday were outdated. Some of the notes were from the erstwhile East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and Burma (which has been renamed Myanmar) while some of the stamps found along with the notes were cancelled.

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Addressing a press conference, Police Commissioner P T Lohar said the police had made an inventory of the seizure.

Senior Superintendent of Stamps (Nashik) S Hanuman Singh told rediff.com, "We found foreign currencies and stamps. The stamps we found had been cancelled, which are not usable. They are normally found with those who collect stamps as a hobby. We found several foreign stamps but those too were not usable and would only be useful to stamp collectors. They are available at market prices."

Assistant Director (Enforcement Directorate) Mr Bharti said, "We had opened 163 boxes out of which we found currencies in three boxes. Most of them were from Third World countries and now out of circulation. For example, currency from East Pakistan, Burma, Germany (from the year 1910), Yugoslavia etc. None of it belongs to developed nations.

"We found Indian currency of Re 1, 2, 5, 10 denominations. In one box, we found some Brazilian currency. A mark on that box indicated that it might have come through some overseas bank."

There were around 500 gunny bags in the house. The bags, which contained huge stones, had 'Supply to Hong Kong' written on them, the sources said adding several boulders were found lying in the compound. The sources said, "We also found some exhibition application papers."

A ZEE News journalist, Yogesh Khare, had first had reported the find on Monday days after a Mumbai police team raided another of Bansal's flats in Nashik on November 26 and seized fake stamps worth Rs 72 lakh.

Sources told rediff.com that Bansal, who is now under arrested, used to change the guard at his residence every month. He used to visit the place once in 3-4 days.