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It seems that the 'republic' of Bellary, as it is often called, has no value for money. A year ago, currency notes worth Rs 4 crore were found burnt in this mining district of Karnataka. If you thought it couldn't get worse, on Tuesday, 400 gunny sacks stuffed with shredded notes worth Rs 4 crore were found in a plywood factory in Bellary.
The sacks were discovered after a police raid at the plywood factory. When the curious cops opened the sacks, they found to their shock that the sacks contained shredded notes.
Further enquiry revealed that the sacks had come from Indore. A team has already been dispatched to Indore to verify the details, and the Reserve Bank of India has been intimated regarding this issue.
The police say that the notes appear to be genuine.
Bellary has been in the news ever since the mining scam broke out. The Central Bureau of Investigation has been probing the money trail from this mining town, which they believe has spread across the country and also internationally.
"Possibly, the notes were shredded so as to avoid any sort of money trail," a source pointed out. "There is a possibility that it was just given away to the factory to be used as mere paper," the source added.
"They find it easier to destroy the money, in order to escape prosecution," said an investigator.
An incident of this nature is not new to the obscenely rich miners in Bellary. In 2011, a similar incident had occurred when the Lokayukta was hot on the trail of the mining community.
The police at that time said that henchmen belonging to the mining had burnt currency (in denominations of Rs 100 and Rs 500 amounting to Rs 4 crore). In another incident which occurred at around the same time, an unreported amount of money was found dumped into a canal.