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Fake currency racket: Six get 4-day police custody, probe on to track source of notes
The police suspect the notes have been procured through multiple consignments over the past five to six months from multiple markets in Mumbai
A day after fake Indian and foreign currency notes worth Rs 87 crore was seized in a joint operation by the Pune police and Military Intelligence (MI), an investigation has been launched to track the source of the notes, as officials feel there is “bigger racket” at stake.
The six men, including an Army personnel, arrested by police were on Thursday, were remanded to four days police custody by judicial magistrate first class RK Khan.
The arrested men have been identified as Lance Naik Shaikh Alim Gulab Khan (36), member of the Indian Army bank at the Bombay Sappers; Sunil Badrinarayan Sarda (40)), a resident of Kondhwa; Ritesh Ratnakar (34), a resident of Kamothe in Navi Mumbai; and Tufail Ahmed Mohammad Ishaq Khan(28), Abdulgani Rehmtullah Khan (43), and his son Abdul Rehman Abdulgani Khan (19), all residents of Meera road in Mumbai. The 43-year-old Khan is the father of the teenager.
The police suspect the notes have been procured through multiple consignments over the past five to six months from multiple markets in Mumbai.
The defence counsel, however, countered the charge saying “These notes have ‘Children’s Bank of India’ written on them. They can be made available through markets and are used in games. How can they be termed as fake notes? This does not amount to cheating,” argued the defence lawyer Rajendra Sonawale.
Public prosecutor Nitin Konghe argued, “If it was not meant for cheating, why were bundles of fake notes covered with real notes on top?”
“They offered visual proof of USD to people who wanted American currency and proof of Indian currency to people seeking Indian currency. Now, whether it was to convert black to white or the other way round is a part of the investigation. In the visuals, if you see, it looks like they have the money they claim to have, but a close look will immediately reveal that the currency is fake,” said police inspector Anjum Bagwan, unit 4 of Pune police crime branch, who is investigating the case.
Earlier, the police asked for custody remand in order to ascertain the number of people who were duped before a police decoy caught them in the act on Wednesday.
“In investigation till now, the accused used to send videos of the currency to gullible people having black money and make hawala deals, and cheat them by giving fake/token notes covered with few real notes. They seemed to have cheated quite a few people with their modus,” said Bachchan Singh, deputy commissioner of police, crime, Pune.
The fake notes were used to show visual proof of availability to the customers who showed readiness to pay. There are multiple customer organisations that were duped in this manner by these men. So far, there are no other suspects in the case besides the six, according to officials.
However, DCP Singh said, “Since the amount involved is huge, further investigation is going on to find involvement of more people, and the beneficiaries of the crime. We also request people who have been cheated by such methods to come forward and share details.”
A case under Sections 489(a)(b)(c), 420 (cheating), 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of Indian Penal Code was registered at Vimantal police station against the six.
