Bengaluru: Demonetised currency notes worth Rs 14.80 crore were seized from a former corporator's house in the city's western suburb, police said on Friday.
"We found the illegal cash in the house of ex-corporator Nagaraj, 54, during a search conducted on a court warrant in a criminal case and seized the banned notes in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination," Hennur Police Station Inspector N Srinivas told news agency IANS.
The police said V Nagaraj, popularly known as "Bomb Naga", formerly a history-sheeter, was not present either at his home or office at Srirampura during the searches.
He allegedly fled on learning about the search team.
Police also faced resistance from Nagaraj's family in entering the house and had to break open the main door with the help of a blacksmith for the search operation.
The police personnel had to enter the former corporate's office by breaking open its window.
Besides a huge amount of cash, police recovered some documents and sharp weapons.
#WATCH: Police raids office of former corporator V Nagraj in Bengaluru, recovers more than Rs. 40 crores of demonetised currency pic.twitter.com/GePuOpdmUp
— ANI (@ANI_news) April 14, 2017
Nagaraj is alleged to have been involved in converting black money into white by exchanging the old currency notes since they were banned on November 8.
He was elected as an Independent corporator of the Bangalore Municipal Corporation in 2002 from the Prakashnagar civic ward in the city's west.
He also contested the 2013 state Assembly Elections from the Gandhinagar segment in the city centre as a candidate of the Badavara Sharmikara Raitara Congress (BSR-Congress) but lost to ruling Congress nominee and former minister Gundu Rao.
The ex-corporator is alleged to have recently kidnapped a city businessman for ransom and is also facing criminal charges of laundering unaccounted money.
(With Agency inputs)
