7 hours Ago
Pune: Shivajinagar police arrested five people, including two women, for running a counterfeit currency racket in the city and seized fake notes with face value of Rs28 lakh from them. Apart from counterfeit currency notes, police also recovered genuine notes worth Rs 2.04 lakh from them.
They also recovered a printer, internet routers, ink, some chemicals, and other equipment used to print the counterfeit notes. You Can Also Check: Pune AQI | Weather in Pune | Bank Holidays in Pune | Public Holidays in Pune Deputy commissioner of police (Zone I) Sandeep Singh Gill said, "An officer of a private bank lodged a complaint with the police on April 17 that someone had deposited counterfeit currency notes in the bank's cash deposit machine (CDM). The CDM is in Kalewadi, but the branch of the bank monitoring the CDM is in Shivajinagar.
Thus, we registered their complaint." Senior inspectors Mahesh Bolkotgi, Chandrashekar Sawant, assistant inspector K B Daberao, and sub-inspector Ajit Bade swung into action and tracked the transaction history of the CDM machine. The team found a debit card number and tracked down the cardholder, an engineering student.
He informed police that his friend gave him the notes, and he deposited them in the CDM. Police questioned his friend, also a student, and he informed police that his mother gave him the notes. Police then contacted the woman, a resident of Yerawada, and later arrested her.
During questioning, police obtained the names of other people involved in the racket. Police then arrested a woman from Chinchwad. "After questioning the two women, our team arrested three men," Gill said.
They are Sachin Ramchandra Yamgar of Gahunje, Naresh Bhimappa Shetty of Lohegaon, and Prabhu Gugal Jeddy of Vishrantwadi. All the five have been remanded in police custody till Monday. "It was Shetty who was printing the notes and distributing them among other people.
The other four were circulating the counterfeit notes in the market. Shetty used to give double the amount of the counterfeit notes to four others on payment in real currencies. It means, if payment of Rs 1 lakh in real notes was made, he used to give them counterfeit notes worth Rs 2 lakh," Gill said.
The police team then raided Shetty's flat in Lohegaon, from where they seized 20 bundles of counterfeit notes in Rs 200 denomination with a face value of Rs 4 lakh, original currency notes worth Rs 2,04,000, and a printer. "Shetty used fine quality A4 size printing papers to print the counterfeit notes. We also seized partially printed counterfeit notes in denominations of Rs 500 from his flat," he said.
"The other members of the racket worked on a commission generated from transfer of counterfeit currency notes in the market," Gill said. "The ring had been operating for a month in the city. We suspect more people are involved in the racket, and we are trying to locate them," he said.
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