Bundles of cash rain down from Kolkata building during DRI raid; owner throws nearly Rs 4 lakh onto street

In a bizarre incident, bundles of currency notes in denominations of Rs 100, 500 and 2,000 were showered from a commercial building in Central Kolkata on Wednesday evening. As per reports, the cash was thrown out of an office from the sixth floor of a building in the midst of an income tax raid conducted by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). In a video of the incident posted by ANI, bystanders and vendors can be seen scampering to grab their share of free cash that is being pushed out of a window with the help of a broom.

#WATCH Bundles of currency notes were thrown from a building at Bentinck Street in Kolkata during a search at office of Hoque Merchantile Pvt Ltd by DRI officials earlier today. pic.twitter.com/m5PLEqzVwS

— ANI (@ANI) November 20, 2019

DRI sources told news agency PTI that its officials had gone to the office of a private company engaged in export-import activities located on that floor to conduct search operations for alleged evasion of duty.“Later reinforcements were also sent,” sources said, adding searches were on. “The search is based on commercial intelligence related to some export, import business. It is a search operation for documents, which may be some information stored in computers. As per News18, the raid which was conducted under the supervision of Deepankar Aron, Additional Director General, DRI, Kolkata Zonal Unit said, “The probe revealed the owner of the firm threw away nearly Rs four lakh. All of them were detained for questioning.” DRI is the apex intelligence and investigative agency for matters relating to violation of the Customs Act. With inputs from PTI