The Rachakonda police on Tuesday busted a fake currency racket and seized fake currency worth Rs 31,25,000 from Hyderabad. The fake currency racket has been pushing Rs 500 and Rs 2000 denomination notes at meat markets, targeting farmers to convert their fake currency into legal tender.
The police arrested a gang of ten members for printing fake currency and circulating them in the market as genuine note. The gang had already circulated Rs 70,000 worth of fake currency in the form of Rs 2000 notes. The accused used colour printers, scanners, screen printing machine and used paper that is similar in quality of original Rs 500 and Rs 2000 denominations. The gang would use an original currency note, scan and print the notes.
They would then cut the copies to similar dimensions of original notes. They would affix watermarks of Mahatma Gandhi and electrotype 2000 numeral on the notes using screen printing materials, said police in their release.
Speaking to TNM, T Ravi Kumar sub-inspector, LB Nagar Police station who helped bust the gang said, “There is a huge difference in the paper quality of the original and the fake notes. But the gang would insert the fake notes into a bundle of cash being exchanged. They have been exchanging the fake currency for original cash mainly with farmers and cattle traders,”
The main accused in the case is Eppanapalli Rajesh, a resident of Saroor Nagar and his three associates Roshan Mahaboob Shaik, Palasusu Dharani, and Kopulla Srinivas. Rajesh divided his team into two groups, one for printing Rs 500 notes and the other for printing Rs 2000 notes. Rajesh was earlier accused in a fake educational certificate case by the Kukatpally police.
The accused then roped in Mohammad Baba and Mohammad Shakeel, two butchers who trade at cattle markets at Ibrahimpatnam, Choutuppal, Shadnagar and Nalgonda. These butchers were given Rs 3 lakh worth of fake Rs 2000 notes in exchange for Rs 90,000 original notes and Rs 19.5 lakh worth of fake Rs 500 notes in exchange for Rs 5.2 lakh original notes.
The butchers then circulated Rs 70,000 of fake currency at the markets. Police recovered fake currency worth Rs 18.8 lakh of Rs 500 denominations and fake currency worth Rs 12.28 lakh of Rs 2,000 denominations from the gang.
The gang would exchange the currency only in early hours of the day when the markets open. “The farmers at these markets totally deal in cash. As these markets open very early in the morning and the transactions happen quickly, so the farmers would not check for fake currency immediately. They will realise that the currency is fake only much later,” added Ravi who asked members of the public to keep an eye on the currency number and paper quality.