Fake currency racket busted in Gurugram, 3 arrested

THE GANG EARLIER USED TO WATCH ONLINE VIDEOS TO TRAIN THEMSELVES. LATER, THEY CONTACTED A RELEASED CONVICT FOR PRINTING THE COUNTERFEIT NOTES

GURUGRAM: The police on Sunday arrested three members of a gang and claimed to have busted a fake currency racket in the city that was involved in circulating counterfeit notes in Haryana, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh.

The police said they received a tip-off on Sunday morning that two men had done shopping worth more than ₹10,000 at New Palam Vihar, but the currency notes they paid turned out to be fake.

Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that the team conducting the investigations found that the men had come on a motorcycle to buy dairy products and paid for it with currency, which was fake.

The information was passed to the crime unit and based on that the men were tracked to a rented accommodation in New Palam Vihar. “One of the officials from the crime team contacted one of the suspects and tried to strike a deal. Initially he was reluctant and tried to mislead us. He later agreed and offered to deliver counterfeit notes worth ₹5,000 for ₹1,000,” he said.

Police said after the time of delivery was fixed, they raided the house and arrested three men from the spot.

The suspects were identified as Sanjeev Kumar and Ritik Kumar of village Gochi in Jhajjar and Bhavishya Singh of Sonipat. The police allegedly recovered printers from the room which were used for printing the currency.

During questioning the suspects revealed that they took three months of training from Uttar Pradesh and then they starting making printouts of currency notes to match the original, said police.

“Two of them were experts in printing and could replicate the watermark which was similar to those found on original notes. After checking the notes carefully, it was found that some features were missing and the paper used for printing the notes was different from the ones used in original currency,” said Sangwan.

The gang earlier used to watch YouTube to take the training but could not learn the techniques following which they contacted a person who had served jail time in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh for printing counterfeit notes, said police.

“We recovered fake notes worth ₹19,100 in the denomination of ₹200 and ₹100, apart from ₹1,000 in genuine cash. During questioning, the man revealed that they formed a team through common friends and took up a one-bedroom apartment in New Palam Vihar. They claimed that there was one more person involved in the racket that supplied fake currency notes to different part of the city as well as the state,” Sangwan said.

A case under sections 26, 27, 28 and 29 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against them.

The modus operandi of the gang was to sell the fake notes to traders and people dealing in changing money for less than half the rate of the denominated notes.

Police said they have circulated more than ₹20 lakh in the last four months with two printers and a computer in their room.

“They had also engaged agents from different cities to identify potential customers, who would buy fake notes at onefourth the rate and double their investment by using them in business,” Said Sangwan.

The police is conducting raids and questioning more people to know the exact numbers of members involved in the gang.