Fake currency racket busted

The Karimnagar Commissionerate Task Force personnel have busted a fake currency note racket with the arrest of two persons and seized two cars, chemicals used for making fake notes, documents pertaining to the properties, bank account passbooks, eight cellular phones and fake gold ornaments from their possession.

Talking to newsmen here on Thursday, Commissioner of Police V.B. Kamalasan Reddy said that the accused, Sheik Abdhul Ghani alias Shakeer (47) of Kakinanda and Guvvala Prakash alias Nani (37) of Samarlakota, East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, were running the fake currency notes racket since last six years with Visakhapatnam and Kakinada as headquarters.

The modus operandi of the gang involved cutting the black paper to the size of the original currency notes of ₹2,000 and ₹500 denominations and making them into a bundle. They place some original currency notes in the black bundle by mixing them with iodine. While handing over the black bundle, the accused cleverly take out original currency note mixed with iodine and wash it with a chemical to get its original colour. They would exchange three black fake currency notes bundle with one original currency bundle and hand over a chemical bottle to wash the notes. When the victims washed the black notes with the chemical, they realized that the notes they received were only black papers. When they tried to contact the accused, the latter would change their phone numbers. Later, they would contact the victims again saying there has been some mistake and then ask them to provide reference of another person in lieu of the fake notes. Accordingly, the victim from Thimmapur mandal, Ammishetty Ravi, suggested the name of Sampath of the Manakondur mandal, who approached them in Kakinada on April 2017.

Initially, he handed over ₹90,000 and later through bank account he transferred₹4.5 lakh. The accused handed over ₹20 lakh fake currency along with the chemical bottle, which was damaged during the journey from Kakinada to Karimnagar. When Sampath asked the accused about the chemical, they demanded additional ₹2 lakh. Sampath approached the police, who investigated and arrested the two accused persons, while Ammishetty Ravi, who had referred them to Sampath, is at large.

Task Force inspectors Madhavi and Srinivas and others were also present.