NEW DELHI, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Indian police seized a huge cache of banned currency notes in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said Wednesday.

The haul was seized in Kanpur city.

"We have seized a huge cache of demonetised Indian currency notes here," a police official posted in Kanpur said. "It's estimated to be around a billion of rupees. The counting is on to ascertain what was its worth."

According to the police, they raided a residential house on intelligence information about the presence of the demonetised currency.

"We are interrogating the people involved," A.K. Meena, a senior police official in Kanpur told media.

The police have also informed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Income Tax (IT) department officials.

The seizure includes the banned 500 and 1000 denomination currency notes.

Reports said the owner of the house has a money exchange business.

In Nov. 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi suddenly announced that the currency notes of 500 and 1000 Indian rupees would cease to be legal tenders.

His decision took 86 percent of the currency out of circulation overnight from India. Enditem