In a shocking incident, a senior Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official was caught converting demonetised currency notes in Bengaluru. He was among those eight arrested.

According to reports, 8 men were arrested when CBI conducted a series of raids in which crores in new notes were found.

K Micheal was a senior special assistant in RBI in Bengaluru. He was caught by the CBI for allegedly helping others to convert black money of worth more than Rs 1.5 crore.

"Pretending to be customers, investigators caught the eight middlemen allegedly involved in laundering black or untaxed money for a price. Around Rs. 93 lakh in new notes was found on them in raids over the weekend", said reports.

One of the men who was arrested is a relative of government engineer SC Jayachandra. Mr. Jayachandra was recently arrested after Rs. 5.7 crore new notes were found during raids at his home. It was during Jayachandra’s interrogation which led the investigators to arrest all 8 culprits.

"The middlemen were charging between 15 to 35 percent commission to convert old notes banned on November 8 by the government", said reports.

The arrested men are assumed to be part of a wider ring that operates not only in Bengaluru but also in other cities.

Previously also, four bank officers were arrested by the police for converting black money. Earlier, Rs 5.7 crore cash was also seized from a hawala operator.

Crores in new cash have been seized in many raids across the country over the past few weeks. This includes Rs 93 lakh which was found in Jaipur on Monday.

In another raid, Rs. 13.50 crore was seized by the Income Tax Department from a law firm located in South Delhi's Greater Kailash out of which Rs. 2.61 crore was in new currency.

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BY M. DIVYA SRI