The Thane Crime Branch has busted a counterfeit currency note racket that allegedly printed notes of superior quality in Shahpur district and circulated them in Thane. Officials said this is a rare instance of counterfeit currency notes of high quality being printed at a local level instead of being smuggled into the country.
According to the Thane Crime Branch officers, the lid was blown off the racket when its Unit V arrested an accused in Thane on August 12. The Unit V officers laid a trap after receiving a tip-off that the accused would be coming near the Regional Transport Office in Wagle Estate on Monday afternoon to hand over a large number of counterfeit notes.
High-tech equipment
A Unit V officer said, “We intercepted Kaluram Indavale, a resident of Shahpur district, at the spot. We searched the rucksack he was carrying and found 566 counterfeit currency notes of ₹500 denomination, with a face value of ₹2.83 lakh. We arrested Mr. Indavale and took him to the Unit V office for further inquiries. Based on the information that he provided during his interrogation, we raided a workshop in Igatpuri in Shahpur on August 15.”
The Unit V team seized 32 items from the workshop, which included computers, scanners, printers and other equipment used in printing counterfeit currency notes. The officer said, “The extent of the racket is clear from the equipment we have seized. We found heat resistant packets in which the notes were placed, an iron that was run over the packets to give the notes a crisp feel, and an electronic weighing scale that was used to measure the notes. Other items seized from the workshop in Igatpuri included a machine used for drying the notes after they were printed, cutting boards of various sizes for different currency notes and various types of inks, papers and glues.”
The Crime Branch has identified an absconding accused in the racket. The officers said the absconding accused seems to be the mastermind of the racket and has in-depth knowledge about making fake currency notes. The officers said Mr. Indavale was the one who distributed the notes among a wide network of agents. The officers also found out that the absconding accused has another case registered against him with the Nashik police for a similar crime.
Another Unit V officer said, “Typically, a fake currency note racket depends on its footsoldiers, who go out into the market, make purchases worth small amounts and pay with the counterfeit notes, making a hefty profit in the process. Apart from the ₹500 notes seized from Mr. Indavale, we have also found templates for ₹2,000 notes.”
The officers will be now consulting experts at the India Security Press in Nashik to get an official certification on the quality of the seized notes. Officers who examined the notes said that they seem genuine to the naked eye and cannot be detected as fake without prior knowledge or expertise. The Crime Branch officers are also going through the contents of the computers seized from the workshop to get a sense of how long the racket has been active.
