Two women, who were shopping in Vilakuthoon Bazaar, were picked up for interrogation after an employee of a shop alerted the police about the fake currency being issued by them on Saturday.
The two women, whose names were given as Lalitha (37) and Usha (27) of Tirupur, had come in a car and were on a shopping spree since afternoon. They visited a few textile shops in the area.
The two ladies gave 1,000 rupee notes for the goods they purchased in the outlets. As no one checked the notes, they repeated the same thing in a few more shops.
When they made a purchase at a small textile shop, the cashier, who is said to be a retired bank employee, suspected the genuineness of the currency notes given by them.
After giving them the balance amount, the alert staff informed the police control room.
A team, which arrived from Vilakuthoon station, caught the women who had just stepped into another shop in the vicinity and took them to the police station for interrogation.
A senior officer said closer scrutiny revealed that the currencies were fake.
“They were nothing but photocopies of currency notes taken from a colour copying machine,” he added.
The women, however, pleaded ignorance with the police. Further investigations are on.
The Reserve Bank of India recently conducted an awareness meeting in the city, where the trading community and other stakeholders were explained the need to be guarded while accepting currencies in higher denomination.
A senior police officer said the two women had bought goods from five to six shops and in all the outlets they had issued thousand rupee notes.
The shops should train their cashiers and also install currency detector machines, the officer added.
