Coimbatore: The city police arrested a 31-year-old Velandipalayam resident and seized fake currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination with a face value of Rs 1.18 crore from him on Friday night. They have also seized a colour photocopying machine and a computer.
Police identified him as B Ananth of Maruthakonar Street at Velandipalayam, who was involved in several two-wheeler theft cases. “On Friday evening, a police team conducting vehicle checks on Thadagam Road had confronted Anath. They found four Rs 2,000 currency notes in his shirt pocket, which turned out to be fake,” a police officer said.
Ananth told police that he had made the fake notes using a photocopying machine with the help of his friends Sundar and Yusuf, who hailed from Karamadai. “They are the masterminds of the racket. Preliminary investigations revealed that Ananth was working as a collection agent for a private financier. Sundar took a room on rent at Velandipalayam one-and-a-half-month ago and from there they were making fake Rs 2,000 currency notes using a colour photocopying machine. They were taking photocopies of original Rs 2,000 currency notes to distribute them with different serial numbers,” the officer told TOI.
Ananth took police to the room, from where they seized 5,904 Rs 2,000 fake currency, a printer, colour ink bottles, a photocopying machine, a hard disk, a computer, a mobile phone, a motorcycle and bundles of white papers.
“Sundar is an expert desiger. He scanned Rs 2,000 notes and was using various colour inks to make the fake notes look like the original. The trio was planning to circulate the notes they made in and around Coimbatore,” a senior police officer said.
Police have formed a special team to nab Sundar and Yusuf. Saibaba Colony police have registered a case against the trio under sections 489 (A), (B), (C), (D) of the Indian Penal Code. Further investigation is on.