Hyderabad: A five-member gang smuggled counterfeit notes from Jharkhand and exchanged such notes worth thousands by buying groceries, vegetables etc from traders on the city’s outskirts.
The gangsters made sure that they did not visit the same market again to avoid suspicion and the police. However, the Rachakonda police busted the racket by arresting five members of the gang, and found that they had been exchanging fake currency in the city since June 2016.
“The suspects divide the fake currency among themselves before going to the market. Each person will carry only one fake note at a time. They purchase things for smaller amounts from street vendors and get the change back in bonafide currency. In this way they exchange the entire counterfeit in weeks and months. Of this, they keep 15 per cent as commission and the rest is given to the ring leader named Nagavalli,” said a senior police official of Rachakonda SOT.
Police said two of the arrested were from Jharkhand and the others were from Hyderabad and Mahbubnagar. They exchanged counterfeit worth Rs 1.5 lakh in markets across the city.
Police seized fake currency worth Rs 54,000 and genuine notes worth Rs 34,300 from the suspects.
The arrested men are Jahangir Shaik, 19, and Abdul Daalim, 23, from the Saheb Nagar district of Jharkhand, Dilavath Vishal, 20, from Kushaiguda, Jerpula Jail Singh, 23, from Neredmet, Nenavath Hari Krishna Naik, 21, from Amangal in Mahbubnagar.
