The city police on Sunday arrested three persons and Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) with a face value of ₹2.96 lakh from their possession.
Acting on a tip-off that some people were trying to exchange the counterfeit bills with the original ones in the ratio of 1:3 near the Steel Plant quarters in HB Colony, a team from MVP Colony police station led by ACP (Dwaraka) R.V.S.N. Murty and Circle Inspector Ch. Shanmukha Rao raided the location and nabbed the accused.
The accused have been identified as Kadavala Naga Venkata Satya Narayana and Bontha Padma Rao alias Chinni Dora, both realtors, and Rowthu Jaya Ram, a driver of Satyanarayana.
Modus operandi
“The accused reportedly came to know that one Shaik Abdul Rehman from Chodavaram and Sayyed Mujibur Rahman from Rajamahendravaram were in possession of the counterfeit currency notes and were ready to exchange. The trio then gathered ₹1.17 lakh and allegedly bought the fake bills from the later,” Police Commissioner R.K. Meena told the media here.
According to per the police, the seized bills were in ₹2,000 denominations, and the accused were able to exchange two notes. “We have seized the remaining notes before they could be exchanged,” said Mr. Meena.
Two more at large
The suppliers of the fake bills Shaik Abdul and Sayyed Mujibur, are at large and a search operation have been launched to nab them.
According to the Police Commissioner, the seized notes were not just photocopy of the original, but were properly printed with the key features.
NIA alerted
“This has got us thinking that there may be a bigger racket in the play and the fake notes might have been procured from some other places. We have also alerted the NIA,” said Mr. Meena.
Meanwhile, the police are not ruling out that the fake bills might have the ISI connections and might be routed from Bangladesh via Malda in West Bengal.
In the past, the city police had busted several gangs who had come from Malda to exchange counterfeit currency notes in the city.
