Pune: The Vishrantwadi police claimed to have busted a fake currency racket on September 4 and recovered fake notes with a face value of Rs1.41 lakh. They caught five persons who were carrying the fake currency. The notes were in the denominations of Rs500 and Rs1,000 and it was tough to make out that they were fake, they said.
All the arrested are from Bengal, and have been identified as Mizharul Toidali Shaikh (28) and Tariqaziz Manajol Shaikh (22), both natives of Murshidabad, Ziarul Daulat Mandol (30) and Hasirul alias Razzak Almin Mandol (19) of Nadia, and Baqool Rasool Shaikh (20) of Shrinathpur. They had rented a place in Bhosari here since one month.
Senior police inspector Sudhakar Kate of Vishrantwadi police station said that these men were only the distributors. “Two of them had brought the fake notes from Bengal for distribution in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. They had brought Rs1.5 lakh, out of which they had distributed Rs8,500, and were to exchange Rs50,000 original notes for 1 lakh fake notes,” Kate said.
On September 4. Around 11.30 am, Mizharul and Tariqaziz had an argument with an autorickshaw driver over fare payment. When on duty police naik Nissar Khan and constable Nirnay Lande of Vishrantwadi traffic division went to see what happened, they began running away. But Khan and Lande chased and nabbed them, and found Rs18,500 fake notes in their possession.
A team led by police sub inspector Sachin Kale, head constables Ravindra Rathod, Bhimsen Sandbhor, police naik Uttam Kadam and police constable Uttam Gat from the detection branch nabbed the remaining three suspects.
On September 5, they were produced before a magistrate court, which remanded them in police custody till September 10. Police have charged them for offences under sections 489B (using as counterfeit currency-notes as genuine), 489C (possession of counterfeit currency-notes) and 34 (common intention) of Indian Penal Code.
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