Counterfeit currency seized, three held
LUCKNOW: The city police arrested three people, including a government official, and seized counterfeit currency with face value of ₹32 lakh from Aliganj area here on Thursday. The accused were reportedly trying to dupe NGOs with the fake currency.
“Our team has recovered 1,600 pieces of counterfeit ₹2000 notes which sums to face value of ₹32 lakh,” said Kalanidhi Naithani, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Lucknow. The arrests were made following a tip off from the local intelligence.
The arrested people were identified as Manish Kumar, 28, and Yaman Patel, 21, of Fathehpur district and one Amit Kumar, 23, of Lucknow. Manish was reportedly employed as an assistant development officer (ADO) at Gramudyog in Allahabad.
The police said the accused used to print copies of a ₹2000 note on normal paper. The printing was done at a cyber cafe owned by a common friend of Manish and Yaman. Police said they would send the currency note to the Forensic Science Lab (FSL), Luc- know, for investigation.
Explaining the modus operandi of the gang, the SSP said that gang members approached several NGOs to lure them into transferring money in their account.
“They use to approach the NGOs as businessmen trying to convert their black money into white. They told the NGOs to deposit money in their account and take 1.5 times of the amount in cash,” said the officer.
He added, “They planned to return the fake notes in order to pay the amount. However, they were arrested before striking any deal.”
Police have arrested the trio under section 489 A (counterfeiting currency notes), 489 B (using counterfeit notes), 489 C (possession of counterfeit notes) of the Indian Penal Code and lodged an FIR in the matter.
“Police are interrogating the trio to extract more information about their activities in the state capital and other districts of the state. Involvement of NGOs is also under scanner,” he added.
The SSP also announced a reward of ₹10,000 for the police team that made the arrest.