Tamil Nadu   

"Currency notes seized from Serina genuine"

Staff Reporter

She now stands cleared of both charges

MADURAI: A special court on Wednesday concluded that the currency notes seized from the residence of P. Serija Banu alias Serina in Madurai were genuine.

Judge M. Manickam also declined to order handing over the money to Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department, which had sought possession of the notes to test their genuineness.

The CB-CID had filed a report quoting Reserve Bank of India officials that the notes were in circulation on the date of alleged seizure on July 10, 2003.

"Since the notes are genuine ones, the need for handing over them to the CB-CID does not arise at all," the Judge said.

Serina, her mother Rameeja and their car driver Sathish were arrested on charges of possessing 30 kg of ganja and Rs. 1,40,18,000. The Special Court acquitted them on June 5, 2006.

However, the Karuppayoorani (Madurai district) police filed another case alleging that Rs. 30 lakh out of the seized money had not been let into circulation, as initially claimed by the RBI. However, the RBI officials retracted, saying the money was indeed in circulation before the seizure.

The case was transferred to CB-CID.

P. Jagadeesh Kumar of Kadambur had claimed that the money belonged to him and he had given it to Serina for buying wasteland.

With Wednesday's judgement, Serina has been cleared of both the charges of possessing narcotic substance and "fake currency notes."

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