Alert public helped the police to arrest a gang of five who had come to the city from West Bengal to circulate fake currency in the market. The police today raided a lodge in Cottonpet where they stayed and recovered 253 currency notes of Rs. 1,000 denomination from them.
A member of the gang, Ajazul Haq (22), was seen in Vivek Nagar running around to get change for a Rs. 1,000 note. A shopkeeper who examined the currency note and observed Haq smelt something fishy and alerted the jurisdictional Vivek Nagar police. The police rushed to the spot and detained Haq for questioning.
Haq led them to a lodge in Cottonpet where his associates identified as Mutibur Rahman (25), Mohamed Zainul (21), Yusuf Ali (25) and Noor Mohammed (24) were staying along with the fake currency notes.
The accused confessed that they had come to the city on train with seven bundles of currency notes concealed in knee caps they wear. They would stay in the lodge on the pretext of granite workers and go around the city in search of gullible people to get the currency notes exchanged and dupe them.
The accused confessed that a gang of people in Malda district is sending them to the city to circulate the fake currency on a commission basis.
The police have taken the accused into custody and are investigating to ascertain whether they are part of an international fake currency racket .
