Hyderabad: The police busted a fake currency racket in Ibrahimpatnam on Saturday and arrested six people. The police also seized fake bills of the newly introduced Rs 2,000 and other denominations worth around Rs 2.23 lakh. The police also requested the public to be alert about fake currency circulating in the market, which is now high due to demonetisation. The suspects arrested are J. Sainath, 28, a butcher, G. Anjaiah, 55, a farmer, C. Satyanarayana, 38, a private employee, S. Ramesh, 34, a businessman, K. Sridhar Goud, 26, a mechanic and A. Vijay Kumar, 25, a sales executive in a finance company. One Kalyan and Srikanth are absconding.
Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagawat said that Sainath was the kingpin of the racket. His friend Ganesh who was remanded for murder, came in contact with Anjaiah, who was also in Cherlapally prison, as he was remanded in a fake currency racket. After release from prison, Ganesh told Sainath about Anjaiah and encouraged him to purchase fake currency and circulate them. As per the plan, Sainath went to meet Anjaiah, but could not meet him and met another agent Satyana-rayana. Satyanarayana directed Sainath to Srikanth who promised him to pay thrice the amount of fake currency in exchange for original currency, after which Sainath paid him Rs 2.9 lakh. But Srikanth did not deliver the fake currency. Later Sainath along with Ramesh approached Anjaiah in January and paid him Rs 1 lakh for fake currency. But when Anjaiah asked time to arrange fake currency, Sainath along with Satyanarayana approached Vijay Kumar and Kalyan. “They purchased a colour Xerox machine and attempted printing but could not do so. Meanwhile, Sridhar came to know of their plans and said they can try to make fake currency and purchased another Xerox machine in August and they printed fake currency. Initially they printed smaller denominations and successfully circulated them in the market,” Mr Bhagawat said.
But after demonetisation, they planned to print and circulate notes of smaller denominations, but after the release of the new Rs 2,000 note, they printed them and were waiting for an opportunity to circulate them. Based on credible information, SOT teams raided their hideout in Ibrahimpatnam and arrested them. They also seized 105 new Rs 2,000 notes and notes of other denominations and cash of Rs 50,000 and other material. Mr Bhagawat asked the public to be careful about fake currency and said that many innocent people have become victims. He asked people to follow through the simple guidelines issued by RBI for detecting fake currency.
Lower value fakes flooding markets:
The lower the value of the currency, lesser the attention people pay to check its authenticity. This is what encourages Indian fake currency racketeers to manufacture fake notes of Rs 10 and Rs 20. Police says that criminals are exploiting the shortage of low value notes. Despite using crude ways to produce fake notes, police say that commoners may not easily detect low value fakes as easily as they do in the case of high denomination notes. The’ main reason is that people do not look carefully at low value notes.
“Unlike interstate gangs or Bangladeshi racketeers, Indian gangs produce fake notes using crude methods like photocopying. Due to the lack of attention of the public these low value fakes can go undetected” said a senior officer. Three main tactics are used by racketeers to circulate fake notes. The first one is to mix the new fake currency with dust to make it look like old. “Another technique is to print the notes in faded colour. The next tactic is to keep these notes with original notes while giving it,” said inspector K. Narsing Rao of the special operation team, of the police.
Since common people do not have the habit of scrutinising low value currency fake notes can get circulated in the market. Police say vendors and shopkeepers are most vulnerable to this scam. Officials say that common people should look at all notes carefully and report to police if they find fake notes.
