A contract worker, earning around ₹ 11,000 a month has emerged key to the investigation of counterfeit currency of ₹ 17.29 crore recovered from a Punjab National Bank (PNB) currency chest in Saharanpur, according to a police officer familiar with the probe.
A currency chest is a facility maintained by banks to store and manage large quantities of cash on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The police officer said the worker’s official duties were limited to driving and loading, but that he allegedly spent considerable time with the currency chest and functioned more like the manager’s personal assistant. “His access to the facility, the nature of work he actually performed and whether he had access to cash-handling areas are being scrutinised,” the police officer said. Police raided his residence in Manakmau on Wednesday, and documents and other material recovered during the search are being examined.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is examining the worker’s assets, financial transactions and proximity to the currency chest manager who has already been suspended by the bank.
