Three of fake currency gang arrested in Visakhapatnam
The police said that kingpin of the gang Srinivas, was an accused in a murder case in Rajahmundry in 2014.
Visakhapatnam: In a major breakthrough in Vizag region after the demonetisation, city police have busted a fake currency gang with the arrest of three persons and seized fake currency notes in denominations of Rs 2,000, Rs 500 and Rs 100 with the face value of Rs 7,32,500 from them on Thursday. The arrested were identified as Ch. Srinivas, 40, a native of Rajahmundry, K.G. Maheswara Rao, 47, of Pithapuram in East Godavari district and B. Appalanaidu, 46, of Gaju-waka area in Vizag city. The police said that kingpin of the gang Srinivas, was an accused in a murder case in Rajahmundry in 2014. He befriended both Maheswara Rao and Appalanaidu in the central jail. While Srinivas was on remand in the murder case, the other two were caught for the printing of fake currency and circulating it.
Joint commissioner of police A.S. Khan said that the trio had hatched a plan to print the fake currency notes (photocopied fake currency) by using scanners, colour printers and others. Using four or five original currencies of denominations of Rs 2000, Rs 500 and Rs 100, the trio produced about Rs 9 lakh fake currencies. Police have also confirmed that about fake currency notes of around Rs 1.7 lakh was already circulated in rural an urban areas.
ACP (Task Force) I. Chittibabu said that the photocopying of the currency was done perfectly so that they managed to circulate some currency notes as original. Photocopied currency can easily be identified as there will not be watermarking of Mahatma Gandhi on the notes. Based on the concrete information, the police have nabbed the trio in a decoy operation. The police seized 328 notes of Rs 2000 denominations, 86 notes of Rs 500 denominations and 335 notes of Rs 100 denominations besides the colour printers and other machinery from the gang. Sources said that it was the first case of fake currency busted post-demonetisation.