kolkata bidhannagar police commissionerate on wednesday seized old currency notes worth rs 453 crore from a shop at a mall in new town the cops conducted the raid after pleas from a widow whose husband used to own the shop according to police all the notes were of rs 500 and rs 1000 denomination which were banned in november 2016 the investigation wing of the income tax department will hunt for the money trail as a followup measure the shop was sealed by the policeaccording to new town police sources sangeeta prasad tipped off cops about the huge amount stacked inside the cash box of the shop after approaching the rbi high court and the supreme court her husband kailash passed away last year and since then the shop was locked her husband had bought the shop several years ago and put it on rent to a third party the shop was under lockandkey from 2012 after the rent agreement expired recently when she and her son piyush opened the shop she realized that a huge amount of money was stacked inside the shop said an officer the police though are still unsure why such a huge amount was merely kept at the shop we are checking if the money has come or was to go to the local syndicates said an officer an it official said that as far as old currency notes were concerned they have no value for the it department but it is investigating whether that currency has been used for any transaction or not the it department had conducted a series of raids at jewellery shops after the demonetisation as there were allegations that some of them had transacted in old currency notes after midnight of november 8 we shall analyse the seizure and only then would be able to give details an official said the income tax department had a major seizure of cash worth rs 386 crore on december 24 last year all in demonetized currency the total seizure of demonitized currency till decemberend was over rs 25 crore currently the figure is hovering around rs 50 crore