Nothing in black & white to hold 'men in black'

MUMBAI: Police can't arrest cash hoarders as there is no legal provision to book people for mere possession of money, say lawyers
Images of police swooping on people with stashes of new currency notes have been a recurrent theme in the wake of demonetisation, conjuring up among many a vision of a succeeding scene filmed behind bars.

But what really happens after the police apprehends somebody with a large amount of new currency notes?

The short answer is that in most cases police lets such people go within hours.

For an illustration, consider the case of the three businessmen apprehended by the Thane police last month for possessing lakhs of new currency notes and trying to exchange these notes for a commission. The police called up the Income Tax Department, “interrogated“ the three men and let them go, with the IT department seizing the money.

No, the three men involved did not pull any strings.

There is simply no legal pro vision under which the police can book such individuals.

“We just intimated the IT department and handed over the men to their custody. The IT department has to take a call on how to proceed,“ said a senior Thane police officer, who did not wish to be identified.

Mere possession of currency is not an offence, said lawyer Zulfiquar Memon of MZM Legal. “Those detained have been let off by police because there is no clarity under which section (of Indian Penal Code) you can detain them. There are a few police stations which wrongly book people under hoarding or cheating.“

Former IPS officer turned lawyer YP Singh said he was surprised as to how such detentions even take place since not paying income tax is a civil matter and police has no role to play in this matter.

“Under which law did the police detain the people involved? The policemen who were involved in these illegal detentions can actually be booked under IPC 341 and 342 ­ wrongful restraint and wrongful confinement,“ said Singh. Memon said last week he managed to get a UK-based client released from custody after he was arrested for “cheating“ while trying to exchange new notes worth `50 lakh. “My client had a fight with the person with whom the notes were to be exchanged. Based on this per son's complaint my client was arrested. I argued his case; not only was he freed, s handed back to him,“ he said. even his money was handed back to him,“ he said.

Singh said that in order to detain or arrest those caught with cash the police needs to show that the money is the proceeds from a criminal case already registered by the police or from a stolen property. “Even the IT department cannot arrest a person; all it can do is seize the money and levy a penalty,“ he said.