Cyberabad police bust fake currency racket, 13 held

Hyderabad, April 25 (IANS) Cyberabad police have busted an inter-state gang circulating fake Indian currency notes in Telangana and other states.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra announced on Tuesday that they have arrested a 13-member gang and seized counterfeit currency notes of over Rs 30.68 lakh.

In a joint operation, the sleuths of Special Task Force, Law and Order Police and Special Operations Team (SOT) Cyberabad apprehended the gang and also seized original currency notes of Rs 60,500 and 13 mobile phones.

Prime accused Koneti Rajesh and Neel Das hail from Odisha and Tripura. The other accused are from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Three other accused, including Suriya from Tamil Nadu, are absconding.

The police made the breakthrough during investigation of a case registered at Raidurgam Police Station on a complaint from a hotel supervisor that one of the customers Rajesh at the time of vacating the room gave fake notes. The police investigation revealed that Rajesh and some other people formed a gang and were circulating fake currency notes by secretly printing them somewhere.

The accused Rajesh used to comment on the YouTube videos and post on Instagram that the fake currency is available and provide the mobile number in the account DP through which various clients come in contact with him and purchase the fake notes.

The same marketing is used by various manufacturers and distributors for the circulation of fake currency, the police commissioner said.

Rajesh and Neel Das came into contact with various counterfeit currency suppliers/manufacturers like Ramesh of Telangana, Charan Singh and gang from Andhra Pradesh and Suriya from Tamil Nadu.

They took the counterfeit currency from them in a 1:5 ratio. The main gang members Rajesh and Neel Das supplied counterfeit currency to other gang members in 1:3 ratio saying these notes are similar to original currency. The accused asked the persons to whom he supplied the counterfeit currency to use the currency in the night markets, street vendors and small shops.

According to police, counterfeit currency notes are highly circulated in small grocery shops in villages, weekly vegetable markets, pan shops, wine shops, petrol pumps, rice mills, money transfer shops at Internet centers, milk shops, events and college fests, scrap shops, push carts and labour addas.