FICN suppliers’ kingpin held,fake notes of face value ofRs 1,51,500 recovered

ATS officials said the accused was identified as Acche Lal Chaurasiya alias Baccha (56), resident of Maheshganj, Pratapgarh. They said the accused had a long criminal record with around 12 cases registered against him since 2001. The accused used to lure young men to work as carriers for international FICN smugglers, who smuggled the fake notes to Malda, West Bengal from Bangladesh where they were printed at an unidentified location.

Lucknow: In a major breakthrough, the UP Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) arrested the kingpin of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) suppliers from Varanasi late on Wednesday night, said senior ATS officials here on Thursday. They said fake Indian currency notes of the face value of ₹1,51,500 (all in ₹500 denomination), were recovered from him .

The arrest of Acche Lal is a major dent in the nexus of carriers as it would stop inflow of FICN from Malda to other parts of the country. (Pic for representation)

In a press note shared with the media, the ATS officials said the accused was identified as Acche Lal Chaurasiya alias Baccha (56), resident of Maheshganj, Pratapgarh. They said the accused had a long criminal record with around 12 cases registered against him since 2001. “The accused used to lure young men to work as carriers for international FICN smugglers, who smuggled the fake notes to Malda, West Bengal from Bangladesh where they were printed at an unidentified location,” a senior police official said.

He said the recent two hauls of FICN consignments on January 27 and February 6 were also associated with Acche Lal and the carriers arrested on both the occasions were working for him. He said the arrest of Acche Lal was a major dent in the nexus of carriers as it would stop inflow of FICN from Malda to other parts of the country. The recovered fake currency was meant for circulation in the open market in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

Earlier on February 6, two accused identified as Ankur Maurya and Vipin Gupta alias Awanish, both residents of Tanda, Ambedkarnagar, were arrested along with FICN of the face value of ₹45,0000 and two others identified as Deepak Kumar and Chandan Sainik, both residents of Pratapgarh, were arrested in Varanasi on January 27 along with FICN of the face value of ₹97.5 lakh .