Stitching up leads provided by two women caught while circulating fake currency notes at Old City nine days ago, the Charminar police on Thursday busted a gang from Malda of West Bengal who supplied the notes.
Counterfeit currency notes of Rs. 1,000 denomination with face value of Rs. 4 lakh were seized from the arrested — Mohd. Najmal, 40, Roobul, 25, and Abdul Musharaf, 23, the Charminar ACP, M. Ram Mohan Rao, said. The seized Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs) are believed to have been printed in Pakistan and smuggled into India via Bangladesh.
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The crucial link in the racket, Botu of Malda, is still at large. The accused trio maintained that it was Botu who gave them the FICNs.
“He claimed the notes were brought from Bangladesh and asked us to get them circulated in Hyderabad,” they told the interrogators.
A special team of Charminar police had gone to Malda, but could not trace Botu.
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Najmal and the other two came to Hyderabad four months ago and rented a house in Borabanda of S.R. Nagar.
They approached two women, Hasina Begum and Parveen, residents of Borabanda, to circulate the notes offering them commission.
The two women were caught by shop owners at Charminar while trying to exchange the notes of Rs. 1,000 denomination by purchasing articles worth Rs. 30 to Rs. 50. Based on their confession, the police raided the house of the trio and recovered the fake notes.
The arrested admitted to have already circulated fake currency notes having face value of Rs. 2 lakh six months ago in the city.
Many Malda-based gangs circulating fake currency in Hyderabad were caught in the past two years.