International fake currency racket busted by UP Police; five held

LUCKNOW: Fake currency with a face value of Rs 16 lakh and the equipment to print them were seized after the arrest of five people involved in the international racket, police said today.

Some illegal foreign currency were also seized from them, the UP Police said in a statement.

Mushtaq Ahmed Khan Gojar, a resident of Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir; Praveen Kumar, a resident of Kanpur Dehat district; Pankaj Saini of Moradabad district, and Neeraj Saini and Gajendra Saini of Amroha have been arrested.

"Pankaj Saini, Mushtaq Ahmed Khan Gojar and Neeraj Saini were arrested from Hasanpur in Amroha. Gajendra Saini was arrested from Moradabad, while Praveen Kumar was arrested from Gurugram's DLF Colony," the police said.

Police seized fake currency with a face value of Rs 15.13 lakh, half-prepared fake currency notes having a value of Rs 1.07 lakh, Rs 27,000 in genuine currency, one USD, Rs 500 Kyat currency, Malaysian currency in denominations of 5, 10 and 20, two Thai currency notes of 100 each, paper for printing the currency and ink.

Police have also recovered a computer, printer, Internet router, PAN card, identity documents, debit card and passport.

A case for counterfeiting currency-notes; using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency-notes; possession of forged or counterfeit currency-notes and making or possessing instruments or materials for forging or counterfeiting currency-notes or bank-notes has been registered.

During interrogation, Gajendra told police that he had visited Bangkok twice and Malaysia once, and had met Zaid Khan alias Gulzar Khan, a resident of Karachi (Pakistan), a fake currency smuggler, police said.