Rs 9.85 lakh crore has already been deposited in banks in form of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes

Almost every 3 days, government’s apprehension of crores of rupees not returning to banks after demonetization seems to maximise. Started with government’s initial estimate of Rs 3 lakh crores, the figure got to a whopping Rs 5 lakh crores a day before yesterday.
With over three weeks to go for the deadline to deposit invalidated 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, deposits in the scrapped currency continue to swell, straining the Centre's estimate of how much of the illegal tender might not come back into the system.

Government data shows deposits in two high denomination notes by Saturday evening had totalled Rs 9.85 lakh crore With more cash sure to flow in before December 30 when the window closes, this figure might shrink.

Sources feel the endless stream of deposits illustrate that those with illegal hordes have been able to find ways to convert "black" into deposits.

PM Narendra Modi referred to the widespread "renting" of Jan Dhan accounts. Preliminary investigation has thrown up the curious pattern of a massive number of deposits of Rs 49,000, the threshold to avoid furnishing PAN number needed for deposits of Rs 50,000 and above.

The Centre is aware of laundering on "industrial scale", and has responded by tweaking regulations - the biggest example being the changes in the Income Tax Act to provide for stiff penalty and tax on undeclared amounts now surfacing in accounts.

Restrictions on withdrawals from Jan Dhan accounts is another example of what an official called improvisation triggered by the ingenuity of money launderers. "This is a typical cat-and-mouse game; regulatory dialectics, if you will, which is playing out, with the Centre trying to keep ahead of those trying to game the system," an official told the Times of India who referred to numerous instances where employers, including educational institutions and hospitals, put money into accounts of employees and have taken post-dated cheques as security.