OOTY: A youth from neighbouring Coimbatore was nabbed here by police when he tried to exchange fake currency notes at tourist spots here. A call, on Saturday afternoon, from a trader on the outskirts of the Government Botanical Garden, to the Town Central Police station about a tourist outsmarting him and exchanging a fake currency in the denomination of Rs 2,000 alerted police who acted swiftly to nab him. He was identified as Prakash (26) hailing from the Malumichampatti area in Coimbatore and running a petty shop in the Chettipalayam area in Coimbatore. Upon enquiry it was revealed that a week ago, he plunged into the fake currency trade using the latest model colour xerox machine to print Rs 2,000, Rs 500 and Rs 200 notes.
While Prakash is suspected to have circulated fake currency to the tune of Rs 30,000 over the past one week in Coimbatore limits, on Saturday he travelled to the hills to try his luck, thinking that exchanging fake currency in tourist spots would be easy. He purchased a doll for Rs 1, 000 in Ooty and gave a fake Rs 2,000 note, but the shopkeeper, smelling a rat, alerted the police.
Police, who raided Prakash’s shop in Coimbatore, seized a colour xerox machine, printer, paper and other materials and also fake notes worth Rs 32,000. Further investigations are on.
