Mumbai Police bust fake currency racket, 4 held with ₹35.54 lakh in counterfeit notes

Unit 7 of the Mumbai crime branch on Tuesday arrested four persons and allegedly seized from their possession counterfeit currency notes worth ₹35.54 lakh. Police raided the residence of one of the accused in Wada, Palghar and seized a computer, printer and other equipment used by the gang to print the fake notes.

The arrested accused have been identified as Mahendra Khandaskar, 50, Abdullah Khan, 24, Farookh Pasha Chaudhary, 33, and Amin Usman Shaikh, 41.

Khandaskar is a driver by profession, while Khan supplies fish to shops. Chaudhary runs a shop and Shaikh worked at said shop. All the accused are residents of Wada.

Police received a tip-off that two persons were coming to Vikroli with fake currency notes. A team of unit 7 police personnel laid a trap on Tuesday and nabbed Khandaskar and Khan. “During the search, police found counterfeit currency worth ₹2.80 lakh from their possession,” said Akbar Pathan, deputy commissioner of police, crime branch.

Both the accused were taken to the unit office in Ghatkopar, and during interrogation, they revealed that they had printed fake notes at Khandaskar’s house. A police team raided the house and found ₹32.54 lakh in fake currency of the denominations of ₹2,000, ₹500, ₹200 and ₹100.

Shaikh and Chaudhary were arrested from the same area, and police seized ₹20,000 in fake currency from their possession.

The mastermind of the gang is still at large. He had convinced Khandaskar to start manufacturing fake notes and helped him print the fake currency, said Manish Shridhankar, police inspector, unit 7. Khandaskar then involved his friend Khan and two others to circulate the fake notes in the market for 10% of the profit. The accused revealed that they were operating for the past two months.