In two years, 24 people arrested with fake currency notes worth `19 lakh

Police said arrested accused had only been hired only to transport notes from one city to another

NAVI MUMBAI: Barkul Shaikh, 22, a native of West Bengal came to Navi Mumbai with counterfeit currency notes of face value of Rs2.99 lakh in September last year. However, he landed in police net before he could deliver the notes at his destination. The police later also arrested one of his associates from Panvel.

According to Navi Mumbai crime branch, the city police have arrested a total of 24 people in 19 cases of counterfeit currency notes in last two year. They have also seized such notes of face value of Rs19 lakh during this time.

The police said most of the people arrested in such cases are from West Bengal. The arrested people do not have much idea where the notes come from as they are hired only to transport the notes from one city to another.

Suresh Mengade, deputy commissioner of police of special branch, said, “Undoubtedly there are some foreign agencies who are supplying such notes to the Indian cities with vested interests. We have come to know about two routes used by such culprits. The first one is through West Bengal and second one is via Rajasthan. However, all the notes we seized in Navi Mumbai in last two years came by the first route.”

“The arrested people hardly have any idea about the places where such notes are printed. The main culprits stay outside the country and hire small-time criminals here to transport the notes,” he added.

The culprits normally target the busy market areas for distributing such notes. “They normally charge real currency of Rs100 for one fake note of Rs500 and real currency of Rs200 for one fake note of Rs1,000. That is how they distribute the notes among the traders,” he further said.

“Several police teams from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai have visited West Bengal searching for the printing places of such notes, but to no avail. Even the cooperation of the local police is also not up to our expectations,” another officer said.

According to the crime branch officials, two types cases of counterfeit notes are registered by the cops. First one is when someone is held with fake notes and the second one is when bank receives such notes from their customers.