Mumbai: The anti-terrorism squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra Police on Tuesday seized Rs2.5 lakh in fake currency from five men hailing from Jharkhand. This lot is by far the best quality counterfeit seized in the state, a senior ATS officer said. It is better than the batch of high quality fake notes seized in May that had made the authorities sit up and take serious view of the counterfeit racket. It led to the National Investigation Agency taking over the reins of investigations.
“The quality of the latest batch fake notes is superior than the one seized in May,” senior inspector Arun Khanvilkar of the ATS said. A close inspection revealed the “errors” that were there in the previous batch of fake notes have been rectified this time. The serial number at the bottom left corner of the note has been spaced out to perfection. The watermark of Mahatma Gandhi is almost 95% correct. The quality of the security thread running through the middle of the note, too, has been fine-tuned.
The five accused — Mukhtar Shaikh, 45, Saharul Shaikh, 21, Anirul Shaikh, 40, Mohammed Shaikh, 33 and Ayasuddin Shaikh, 38 — were arrested at Sion-Koliwada. They had gone there to deliver the fake notes to a person, who escaped arrest. Four hundred notes — of Rs1,000 and Rs500 denominations — were recovered from them. It was found that the five belonged to the same gang that was dealing with the counterfeits seized in May. They were produced in court, which remanded them in police custody till November 26. The ATS is grilling the five to identify the receiver of the fake notes and to find out where the notes came from.
A senior ATS official said that none of the few discrepancies on the fake notes was visible to the naked eye. However, when they were put through an ultra-violet machine, a few discrepancies came to the fore. “The green ink of the serial number of a fake Rs1,000 note is slightly dull.
The ink on a real note glows through the UV ray,” said an ATS officer. “Also, the watermark on the fake notes is placed slightly lower than the one on the original. Interestingly, these are the only two discrepancies.”
–Agencies–