Fake currency racket busted in C’garh, two held

Raipur: Police claimed to have busted an inter-state fake currency racket with the arrest of two persons and recovered counterfeit notes with the face value of Rs 7.80 lakh from them in Mahasamund district in Chhattisgarh today.

The accused, identified as Latif Khan (32) and Madhusudan Rana (40), were arrested from Saraipali police station area of the district, Mahasamund Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sanjay Kumar Dhruv told PTI.

While Khan is the native of Saraipali area (Mahasamund), Rana belongs to the neighbouring Bargarh district, which falls in Odisha state.

Police had received a tip-off that fake currency racketeers were trying to put the counterfeit notes into circulation in Baloda area of Saraipali.

“Based on the information, a team of Crime Branch laid the trap and arrested Khan along with counterfeit notes with face value of Rs 30,000,” he said.

During the interrogation, the accused revealed that he received the fake currency consignment from Rana.

“Subsequently, the crime branch personnel posed themselves as customers looking to get fake currency notes and contacted Rana,” the ASP said.

Later, he was also arrested and fake currency with Rs 7.50 lakh face value was recovered from him, he added.

All the fake currency notes were in the denomination of Rs 2,000.

The duo were allegedly involved in disposing fake currency in the bordering area of Chhattisgarh-Odisha.

However, the source of notes was yet to be ascertained, the ASP added.

A case has been registered against them under the IPC section 489-B (using as genuine forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank notes), he said adding that further probe was on.

Last year, five persons were arrested from the same Saraipali area for printing and circulating the fake Indian currency notes, he added.

—PTI