4 held with fake currency notes of ₹4.6L face value

LUCKNOW : TheUttarPradesh Special Task Force (STF) claimed to have busted an inter-state gang involved in circulation of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) and arrested four people with fake notes to the face value of ₹ 4.6 lakh from outside Daliganj railway station in Hasanganj here on Friday. The racketeers brought the FICN from Malda in West Bengal and circulate it in UP , Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Mumbai.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP), STF Abhishek Singh said 230 fake notes of ₹ 2000 denomination were recovered from those arrested . The fake notes contained several features of original currency, including the watermark but the engraved security feature was missing . Moreover, same serial numbers were found printed on multiple fake notes, he added.

“As ₹ 2000 notes were newly launched, the common man was unable to detect the fake notes and the racketeers exploited this ignorance to circulate the FICN in the open market,” he said .

Those arrested were identified as Shiv Bhajan Gupta, Vivek Lodhi, Kuldeep Gupta and Rajnish. “Shiv Bhajan is a relative of one Ghan Shyam Gupta who was arrested with FICN of ₹ 8 lakh in 2017 while three others are his carriers,” the SSP said . Shiv Bhajan Gupta was running the gang after the arrest of its kingpin Ghan Shyam.

The SSP said Gupta revealed during interrogation that he got the FICN from Mithun alias Mateen whom he had met with Ghan Shyam Gupta around four years ago. He said Mateen gave give him FICN to the face value of ₹ 1 lakh for ₹ 44,000. Gupta later circulated it among different gangs in return for ₹ 60,000 . He said the racketeers generally moved in trains and buses to avoid police and other law enforcement agencies.

He said the accused revealed that Mateen brought the consignment from Bangladesh and initially stored it at some place in Malda before pumping it into the market through carriers and gang members. Efforts were on to trace other people involved in the FICN racket, the SSP said.