Nashik (Maha):
The mystery behind notes worth Rs 5 lakh going missing from the Currency Note Press (CNP) here has been solved and there had been no theft but a wrong categorization, city police said on Wednesday.
The missing bundles were wrongly `punched’ by two supervisors from the cut-pack section of the unit who later confessed about the same and were suspended, a police release said.
When any faults are detected in newly printed currency notes, they are punched to make holes in them and later discarded.
The CNP, a unit of the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL), is situated on Jail Road here. On July 13, assistant manager Amit Sharma of the CNP lodged a complaint at Upnagar police station, stating that bundles containing 1,000 notes of Rs 500 denomination had gone missing. The police registered a case of theft under IPC section 381.
As per the CNP, the notes had gone missing from February 9 this year, and an internal committee probed the matter but could not make any progress, so a police case was registered.
Probe revealed that the the missing notes could not have been taken outside the premises due to tight security and frisking. As the probe focused on two supervisors of the cut-pack section, the duo on July 24 submitted a `confession’ to the CNP management.
These notes were not stolen but were punched by mistake (though they had no faults) owing to workload, and fearing action, they did not disclose this to the superiors, they stated.
Further probe is on, the police said.
Meanwhile, members of the Press Mazdoor Sangh, a union of CNP employees, on Wednesday gheraoed General Manager of the CNP and demanded that the action taken against nine workers should be revoked as the police probe had exonerated them.
