Fake currency racket busted, three held

SUSPECTS SAID THAT THEY USED TO SCAN A CURRENCY NOTE AND PRINT IT TO BUY GROCERY ITEMS FROM THE MARKET: POLICE

NOIDA: Police on Sunday arrested three persons for allegedly printing and circulating fake currency. Police said they seized the machines used to print the notes at their rented accommodation in Chotpur colony in Noida Sector 63.

The suspects were identified as Rajneesh Kumar, 25, Ram Pratap, 23, and Surjeet, 24, all residents of Kanth in Shahjahanpur district of UP. The police said that they have recovered fake notes (in denomination of ₹2,000 and ₹100) with face value of around ₹30,000 from their possession.

Sub-inspector Sumit Kumar, a complainant in the case, said that the police were conducting a check at FNG Road in Bahlolpur in the evening following a tip.

“We received information that a member of the fake currency gang would be there. We found a man walking towards us but having seen us, he turned back and started running,” Kumar said in the FIR registered at Phase 3 police station.

However, the suspect, later identified as Kumar, was chased and arrested, the police said. The police recovered 50 fake notes each of face value ₹100 from him.

Elamaran G, additional deputy commissioner of police, Noida Central, said that the police team questioned the suspect who revealed that he was a member of a gang that printed fake currencies. “The police took the suspect to his hideout and arrested two other suspects from a house in Chotpur colony,” he said.

The police seized a printer and a scanner, among other equipment, from the house.

According to the police, the suspects revealed that they used to scan a note and then get multiple prints of the same to buy grocery items from the market. The police said that the suspects had circulated fake notes of total face value of around ₹20,000 in the past three months.

A case has been registered against them under sections 489-A (counterfeiting currency notes), 489-B (using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency notes), 489-C (possession of forged or counterfeit currency notes) and 489-D (making or possessing instruments or materials for forging or counterfeiting currency notes) of the Indian Penal Code. The suspects were produced in court and sent to judicial custody, the police said.