The police arrested three persons, including an engineering students and two scribes, engaged in printing and distributing counterfeit currency notes here on Friday.
Warangal Range DIG of Police B. Malla Reddy told newsmen that Rs. 43,17,000 worth fake currency and Rs. 90,000 genuine cash and equipment used to print the fake notes were seized.
The arrested were identified as Kandula Pavan Kumar Reddy and Peddineni Ravi Prasad of Bhadrachalam in Khammam district and Didigam Manoj Kumar of Ramavaram village of Husnabad mandal in Karimnagar district.
Kumar Reddy and Ravi Prasad were friends and said to be running a weekly magazine in Bhadrachalam, while Manoj Kumar is a B.Tech student. With an intention to make a fast buck, the scribes started printing fake currency of Rs. 500 and 1,000 denominations at the residence of Pavan Kumar Reddy.
On Friday, they brought Rs.1,60,000 worth fake notes to a private hostel in Hanamkonda to hand it over to Manoj Kumar, who was habituated to lavish lifestyle and offered to pay Rs. 90,000 original currency in return for the fake currency.
On a tip-off, the CCS police team raided the hostel and took the accused into custody. During the interrogation, they confessed to their crime.
DIG Malla Reddy and SP A.K. Jha appreciated the efforts of Hanamkonda DSP Shoban Kumar and Inspector Kiran Kumar, CCS DSP Eashwar Rao, Inspector Adinarayana, Sub-Inspector Lakshminarayana, head constables Veeraswamy, Siva Kumar and Jampaiah in busting the fake currency racket.
The DIG appealed to the public to be wary of fake currency and advised the youth not to indulge in illegal activities.
