2 fake note circulating gangs busted in Vizag

Assistant director among the eight accused held in the cases

February 27, 2014 02:32 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 07:32 pm IST - VISAKHAPATNAM:

A fake currency note circulation racket was busted by the P.M. Palem police with the arrest of eight members of two different gangs. The accused include an assistant director of Telugu films Bhupathi Raja. The police seized fake Indian currency of the face value of Rs.3,35,900. The notes were in the denominations of Rs.100 and Rs.500.

Bhupathi Raja (34) of Anakapalle, who had worked as an assistant director for a few Telugu films, ganged up with his friends D. Kiran Kumar (29), Ch. Satyavara Prasad (25), P. Vinay Varma (25) and Sheik Dilshad Ahmed, all residents of the city, and conspired to exchange counterfeit currency for genuine notes in and around the city. They purchased household articles and liquor with the counterfeit notes and obtained genuine currency notes from the traders for the balance, Police Commissioner B. Shivadhar Reddy told the media on Wednesday.

The five-member gang went to Malda in West Bengal and secured the counterfeit currency, printed in Bangladesh. They exchanged the fake notes to buy various goods in the city and got some genuine currency notes in the process.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Madhurawada) K Ranga Raju, P.M. Palem Inspector Ch. Thirupathi Rao, SIs Ch. Ramadas and G Divakar Yadav and constables Srinivas Reddy and Chinna Raju arrested Bhupathi Teja and his gang near the ACA-VDCA cricket stadium at PM Palem when the gang members were in possession of counterfeit currency.

Fake currency of the face value of Rs.2,31,900 in denominations of Rs. 100 was seized from them.

Currency recovered

In another incident, the PM Palem police arrested three persons and recovered fake Indian currency of the face value of Rs.1,04,000 (in denominations of Rs.100 and Rs.500) from them. Nammi Srinivasa Rao (25), a scrap merchant at Gajuwaka and Mohammed Yasin (40) of Gajuwaka were arrested in separate cases and they got acquaintance with one Ali of Bangladesh, who was arrested in counterfeit currency case when Ali was at the Central Prison.

After being released from prison, Srinivasa Rao, Yasin and one T. Satyanarayana (32) went to Malda of West Bengal and obtained counterfeit currency printed in Bangladesh from a gang and came to the city for exchange of the counterfeit currency by taking Rs.35,000 genuine currency to give Rs.1 lakh fake currency to some persons. Acting on a tip-off, the police nabbed Srinivasa Rao, Yasin and Satyanarayana. Yasin was also involved in a counterfeit currency case under V Town police station limits in the city about six months ago.

The Police Commissioner said that Malda and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal, which share the border with Bangladesh, have emerged as major hubs for distribution of counterfeit currency allegedly printed in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

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