Fake notes of 55cr value seized in Pune; jawan among 6 held

Pune: In an operation initiated by the Military Intelligence (MI), the Pune crime branch seized fake Indian and US currency notes of Rs55 crore face value from a bungalow at Sanjay Park in Vimannagar on Wednesday.
Six men, including a serving Lance Naik attached to the military band unit at the Bombay Engineering Group here, have been taken into custody in connection with the seizure. The counting of the counterfeit notes was on till late Wednesday night, but the police estimate the face value of the currency to be Rs55 crore. On its part, the Army Southern Command estimated the seizure at a face value of Rs10 crore, in a statement released late in the evening.
“It would seem the plan was to circulate these fake notes in the market by using a layer of genuine notes on top,” a police officer said, pointing out that actual currency worth Rs2.5 lakh was also seized from the bungalow.
Army sources said the action was based on a tip-off from the MI officials in Jammu and Kashmir and the Southern Command, who contacted city’s joint commissioner of police Ravindra Shisve. The six arrested men were being questioned over the source of the fake currency and other details.
Police identified the six men as Lance Naik Shaikh Alim Gulab Khan Sahab (36), Sunil Badrinarayan Sarda (45) from Pune, Ritesh Ratnakar (43) and Abdul Rehman Adul Ganik Khan (18), both from Kamote in Navi Mumbai, Abdul Gani Rehmatullah Khan (45) and Tufail Ahmed Mohammad Ishaq Khan, both from Mira Road, Mumbai.
Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Bachchan Singh told TOI, “So far, Indian currency of various denominations totalling Rs 43.4 crore and 4.2 crore US dollars in face value have been seized. The quality of the notes will be checked in due course by experts. Many of the notes are marked ‘Children Bank of India’.”
Late in the evening, the Army Southern Command, which is headquartered in Pune, issued a release which read: “The Southern Command Intelligence wing along with crime branch, Pune, carried out a successful joint operation in Vimannagar and busted a fake currency racket on Wednesday. Six people, including five civilians and a soldier, were apprehended with fake Indian and foreign currency to the tune of approximately 10 crore.” The release said a pistol was also recovered during the operation.
When contacted, Shisve said, “The currency notes seized looked very similar to genuine notes. We are interrogating the suspects to trace from where the notes were printed and secured.”
Additional commissioner of police Ashok Morale said, “Investigations so far have revealed that Lance Naik Alim brought the currency to Pune. He had taken the bungalow on a monthly rent of Rs 23,000 around eight months ago from its owner Ganesh Shinde. Alim had taken the help of Abdul Gani to exchange the notes and US dollars in the local market on a commission basis. Gani later took the help of the other four men, including his son, to get customers for the exchange of notes,” he stated.
Morale said, “The MI officials were monitoring Gani’s movements on suspicion that he was running a fake currency racket. After the MI’s tip-off, we sent a decoy with Rs25 lakh cash to meet Gani near S P College. Gani checked the genuineness of the notes given by the decoy and together they drove to the bungalow to strike an exchange deal. Once they were in, our police team led by senior inspectors Rajendra Mohite and Anjum Bagwan raided the bungalow.”
An army officer, who did not wish to be named, told TOI, “A specific input was received from a source in a West Asian country that a huge consignment of fake currency is being pumped into Pune for anti-national activities. This got the MI and the police to act together.”
The officer said, “We had to take help from a hawala operator in Mumbai, who got in touch with one of the suspects to offer his services to circulate the fake notes by using his resources in Pune, Mumbai and other cities. The suspects took some days and finally agreed on Wednesday to strike a deal. Based on the specific inputs, we jointly laid a trap and arrested them with the fake notes,” the officer added.