A money-changer waits for customers in Ranchi. Picture by Ashok Karan

Ranchi, Sept. 12: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the residences of money-changers Kartar Singh, alias Mitthu, Manoj Gupta and Mama, alias Bhushan, in connection with the detection of dummy notes worth Rs 2.14 crore on Saturday.

But fellow vendors in Ranchi said they knew that the trio was involved in the racket since long. The scam was reported in the media in August.

The three are absconding and six employees of the State Bank of India are already under suspension on charges of slipping in dummy notes into the currency chest of SBI, Dhanbad main branch, in connivance with the three law-breakers.

Money-changers operating from Ranchi?s Kutchery campus confided that they knew the trio were becoming rich overnight by exchanging dummy notes for bona fide currency notes. But they did not know from where the exchange was being done, added the vendors.

These sources also said the accused shared the details of their transaction without revealing the bank?s name. A money-changer from Rourkela was the kingpin the sources claimed.

The vendors also said they witnessed the trio graduate from exchanging soiled notes from a wooden stall, on the Kutchery campus, and riding bicycles to constructing posh houses and travelling in swanky cars in less than two years.

Interestingly, a D.K. Ghosh also joined the bank as cocustodian of the currency chest two years ago and, according the CBI, the racket was doing better, for the law-breakers, after the appointment.

The money vendor said the trio had confided bank employees charged 20 per cent commission for replacing the soiled notes. The RBI refunds 100 per cent for a mutilated note 60 per cent intact with serial number fully visible on one side and, at least, the last four digits on the other side.

Recollecting the modus operandi, a money-changer said Mitthu gave a Rs 20,000 loan to a vendor while Rs 50,000 one to another.

?In return he wanted the vendors to hand over all rejected and badly mutilated currency notes to him for a price,? he said.

Vendors said the trio collected rejected notes from various money-changers all over the country and exchanged them at 100 per cent value from the bank.

When they could find no more rejected notes, they started collecting fake notes. The trio also started deliberately cutting fresh Rs 1,000 and 500 notes to avail extra benefits.

They would exchange two-thirds of the notes for 100 per cent reimbursement from the RBI and submit three pieces of the remaining one-third to the SBI claiming it to be a single note, said the sources.