It has been more than three years since the demonetisation of old currency Rs 500 and 1000 notes, but it is still troubling people.
A 56-year old Swedish woman tourist has been fined over Rs 2 lakh for possessing demonetised old currency notes of Rs 500 and 1000.
According to a report in The Hindu, the incident surfaced at the Cochin International Airport and the security officials had little suspect over the foreign tourist. When they screen the woman’s luggage, they found woman possessed 49 demonetised notes of Rs 1000 and 5 notes of Rs 500.
What’s the law?
As per the law, possession of more than 10 pieces of invalidated currency notes by individuals, and more than 25 for study, research, or numismatics is deemed a criminal offence attracting a minimum fine of Rs 10,000 or five times the cash held, whichever is higher.
Thus, these notes were seized from her possession and handed over to the Customs authorities, and woman has been fined for more than Rs 2 lakh.
The CISF said that the woman traveller had claimed that she had visited India in 2014 and those notes were from her last trip to India. She also stressed that she was not aware of demonetisation and that she was not told about it by anybody upon her arrival in India.
As per the reports, she was due to board a flight to Colombo, but the hassle over the old notes amounted to her missing the flight. However, later she was allowed to leave for Sri Lanka after she paid the required fine at the Angamaly First Class Judicial Magistrate court.
