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Warangal: Internet helps family print fake currency

YouTube videos inspire Warangal family to commit crime.

Warangal: Taking inspiration from YouTube videos, four of a family printed and circulated fake currency notes but were caught after people identified the notes as fake and handed them over to the police.

The police seized fake currency with a face value of Rs 69,900, besides Rs 29,870 original notes. The accused have so far circulated fake currency with a face value of Rs 2 lakh.

The four members of the family are Samala Srinivas, his wife Bhagyalaxmi, and sons Sai Charan and Akhil, all natives of Narsampet in Warangal Rural district.

According to police, Srinivas, who worked as a registered medical practitioner in Narsampet for some time, shifted to Thorrur in search of work. After he incurred losses in the hotel business, he moved his family to Hyderabad in 2017 and started working as an auto-rickshaw driver.

In need of money, Srinivas was always on the look-out for ways of making it. By watching YouTube videos, he learnt how to print fake currency. He procured a colour printer and paper, and started to print notes in the denomination of Rs 2,000, Rs 500 and Rs 200. He and his family circulated the notes in rural areas where there was less chance of them being identified as counterfeit. They bought liquor from belt shops with the fake notes and got the change in cash in genuine notes. zOn Thursday, they visited several belt shops in Kesamudram mandal. Their luck ran out when the notes were identified as fake in Upparapally village. The police received several complaints from victims and began an investigation that led them to Srinivas who was arrested with other family members on Friday. The equipment used for printing the fake notes was found and the police seized two printers from the residence of Srinivas in Hyderabad.

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