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Police probing alleged melting of coins

Staff Reporter

Kolkata: The city police are investigating the possibility of coins being melted and reused, with intelligence reports suggesting their being smuggled out of the country into neighbouring Bangladesh.

“Based on a complaint by the Reserve Bank of India, a team of detectives is exploring the places within the city where there is a practice of melting metals,” said Gyanwant Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Detective Department of the city police. “Till now, we have not been able to catch anybody in the act,” he added.

The RBI’s complaint was based on “unconfirmed reports that coins were being hoarded and melted” in parts of the city, according to the spokesperson of its press relations department. Any scarcity of coins, owing to such incidents, was, however, ruled out by the RBI.

While melting of metals was a cognisable offence, arrests could not be made on the basis of assumptions without concrete evidence, Mr. Singh said. Unless the offenders were caught red handed, it would be difficult to prove that the metal was extracted from coins and not other substances, he added.

Based on intelligence reports from other agencies that molten metals were being smuggled across the border into Bangladesh, troops along the Indo-Bangladesh border have also been alerted, sources at the Border Security Force said. No arrests have been made by the BSF so far, though there were unconfirmed reports that the metal was being used to make shaving blades, idols and other equipments.

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