Chennai: Man with fake notes worth Rs 8,500 arrested

Chennai: Fake notes worth Rs 8,500 were seized from a man arrested by the Peerkankaranai police on Tuesday. Prakash was arrested from a departmental store where he tried to exchange the notes for goods, police said.

The incident occurred when Prakash had given two Rs 500 notes in exchange for some goods at a departmental store on Mudichoor road, near Tambaram. A woman, posing to be his wife, had accompanied him. The cashier at the store examined the note and decided to run it through a machine to check the authenticity of the note. When it was proven to be fake, he alerted the Peerkankaranai police.

Meanwhile, the woman who had accompanied the man, fled the scene while the man was not allowed to leave the store premises. 

The police who rushed to the spot recovered another 15 Rs 500 notes from his person. On further inquiry, the man said that he was a businessman in Varadharadhapuram and had received the notes from someone in the morning. However, the police who did not believe him searched his house and found a printing machine, along with several already-printed notes. 

It was also found that he used to exchange the notes on a daily basis, pushing the currency into circulation, especially by lending it to daily-wage labourers. He would take an additional Rs 100 as interest from them too, police sources said.

The police are now investigating if Prakash belonged to a larger group,  who had sent him to exchange the notes. 

They are also looking for the woman using the CCTV footage recovered from the store. The case will be transferred to the Central Crime Branch police, police sources said.