Counterfeit currency racket busted

Bhopal, Dec 18 (UNI) A counterfeit currency racket was today busted with the arrest of four people and seizure of fake notes of Rs six lakh and equipment from them, police said.

''Fake notes of denominations of Rs 500, Rs 100, Rs 50 and Rs 20 were seized. This is possibly biggest seizure of counterfeit currency in the state capital,'' Superintendent of Police Jaideep Prasad said.

On a tip-off that a person lodged in a local hotel was exchanging counterfeit notes of Rs one lakh for Rs 20,000, police sent Kotwali head constable as decoy customer.

A raid was conducted during the course of the deal and fake notes worth Rs 1.5 lakh seized from Ashish alias Raja.

On the basis of Raja's interrogation, fake notes of Rs 1.84 lakh was seized from Raja's house in Hoshangabad, Rs one lakh from his brother-in law Sewaram Agrawal, Rs 1.5 lakh from Shobharam Vishwakarma and Rs 16,000 from Dheeraj Rathore.

The group used to circulate counterfeit currency in Indore, Sehore, Hoshangabad and Nagpur in Maharashtra. In order to avoid suspicion, the foursome used to put slip of some bank, including rural banks, on the notes.

The gang, which was operating since the past six months, had circulated about Rs 15 lakh fake notes in the market so far.

Mr Prasad did not rule out involvement of some bank officials and businessmen in the scandal.

A colour printer, a paper cutter, ink of three-four types, white paper, 82 notes of Rs 100 that had not been cut and four mobile phones were seized from their places.

The foursome hailed from Madhya Pradesh.

Mr Prasad announced Rs 1,000 each for police personnel involved in busting the racket besides providing promotion letter to the Additional Superintendent of Police of the area.

UNI