Maharashtra: Fake currency worth Rs 44 cr seized, six held

Pune police and Army's Southern Command Intelligence wing in a joint operation seized fake currency notes including dummy bills from 'Children Bank of India' and counterfeit US dollars worth over Rs 44 crore. Six people were also arrested in this connection.

Pune (Maharashtra): Fake currency notes including dummy bills from 'Children Bank of India' and counterfeit US dollars worth over Rs 44 crore were seized in Pune on Wednesday with the arrest of six people including a serving army personnel.

In a joint operation, Pune police and Army's Southern Command Intelligence wing carried out raids in Viman Nagar area and busted the racket, Pune crime branch officials said.

Fake currency worth Rs 44 cr seized, six held

So far, fake Indian and US currency worth over 44 crore has been seized and counting is still on, they said.

"The quality of the notes is being verified but many of the notes are dummy bills from `Children Bank of India'," said Bachchan Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).

The police identified six accused as Shaikh Alim Gulab Khan (who is serving Army personnnel), Sunil Sarda, Ritesh Ratnakar, Tufail Ahmed Mohammad Ishaq Khan, Abdul Gani Khan and Abdul Rehman Abdul Ghani Khan.

Singh said the gang cheated people by passing off fake notes as real currency.

"Investigation is going on to ascertain the source of the counterfeit currency," the DCP added.

A police officer who was involved in the operation said that after receiving a tip-off from the military intelligence, they started communicating with the accused.

Officers posed as customers, expressing desire to exchange Indian rupees with US dollars.

"To establish that we were genuine customers, we even procured Rs 25 lakh cash from a bank, showed it to the accused to earn their trust and reached the bungalow in Viman Nagar area where the fake currency was stashed," he said.

Genuine currency worth Rs 2 lakh was also seized.

The accused used to put a real currency note on the top of a bundle of fake notes to dupe recipient of the cash, he said.

PTI.