International fake currency racket busted, 3 held

Nagpur, Sep 2: Police on Tuesday, Sep 2 claimed to have busted an international fake currency racket, involving the smuggling of counterfeit notes from across the border with Nepal, with the arrest of three people here and seizure of Rs 54,000 bogus money from them.

Speaking to newspersons, Commissioner of Police Praveen Dixit said the counterfeit money was seized from Surendra alias Sham Ramda Ghagre (30), a resident of Chhindwara district, Radheshyam Narayan Bhadre (24), a resident of Betul district, both in adjoining Madhya Pradesh (MP), and Kishore Bhagwan Neware (35), a resident of Nagpur, late last week. The police seized a total of 108 fake notes, each of Rs 500 denomination from them, he said.

During interrogation, the suspects claimed that they had obtained the fake currency from Nepal, Mr Dixit said.

This indicated that a fake currency racket was operating across India's border with Nepal, he said.

''The three suspects are likely to have been couriers. The mastermind could be somebody else,'' the CP said.

It was also likely that Nepal was being used as a conduit for smuggling the counterfeit currency from some other neighbouring country. Hostile forces appeared to be trying to destabilise the country's economy by smuggling in the currency, Mr Dixit told newsmen.

The Central law enforcement agencies had been alerted about the seizure, he added.

UNI