Woman says cousin took Rs 20 lakh in demonetisation con

BENGALURU: A 59-year-old woman has alleged that her cousin cheated her family of Rs 20 lakh during demonetisation of currency in November 2016, promising to exchange the money for legitimate notes before reneging on his word and threatening police action.


Mallika Begum, of Machan Road in Bharathi Nagar, approached Bharathi Nagar police on Saturday, seeking legal action against her cousin Ayub Khan.

Police said that Mallika’s husband Nissar Ahmed, a salesman in a private firm, died in August 2016. Nissar’s company gave her Rs 5 lakh as compensation. Deciding to buy a house, Mallika added the sum to Rs 8 lakh from her son Riyaz Ahmed’s savings and Rs 5 lakh that her two daughters together gave her. She raised an additional Rs 3 lakh by pledging her gold.

“Mallika arranged for Rs 20 lakh in cash to purchase a new house when the Centre announced demonetisation in November 2016,” a police officer said. “When she started to ask for help to exchange the currency she had for new notes, Ayub assured her that he would get

legal tender

and took away all her money.”

When Ayub failed to give her the new currency she demanded that he return the money. He threatened her and her son with police action for hoarding a large amount of demonetised currency.

“Ayub recently warned her not to ask for the money again,” the officer said. “We will summon him for questioning.”