Berhampur, Nov. 19: Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, who was arrested in 2014 and is lodged in Berhampur Circle Jail, has moved court for exchange of the demonetised currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 that was seized from him at the time of his arrest.

Sabyasachi has filed a petition in the court of the additional district judge-II, Berhampur, Biswajit Mahanty to direct police to take necessary steps to exchange the demonetised currency notes before December 30.

His advocate Deepak Patnaik said Rs 2.11 lakh in cash, including 175 demonetised notes of Rs 1,000 and 72 demonetised notes of Rs 500, was lying in the police treasury.

"The notes would become useless if not exchanged in time. That's why we have requested the court to direct the police to convert it into valid currency of the same value," said Patnaik.

Sabyasachi appeared before the court today for hearing of a case. But the hearing was postponed to December 16 and 17 as no witnesses from the police had appeared, public prosecutor Kuresh Gouda.

"Justice Biswajit Mahanty has also asked investigating police officer Thakur Prasad Patra to submit the status and the whereabouts of the currency notes seized from his Sabyasachi's possession during arrest," said Patnaik.

Apart from Rs 2.11 lakh in cash, 500gm of gold, a revolver, some ammunition, 10 mobile phones, a laptop, two hard discs and five pen drives were also seized from Sabyasachi during arrest on the night of July 17, 2014.