Pune: Cops bust fake currency notes inter-state racket, 6 arrested

The Pimpri Chinchwad police on Monday said they busted an inter-state racket of manufacturing and distributing fake currency notes with the arrest of six men. The police also recovered fake notes of 2000 and 500 denominations with a total face value of over Rs 32 lakh

The probe into the case started on the evening of June 23, when working on a specific tip-off from informants, a team from Pimpri Chinchwad police laid a trap near a graveyard in Nigdi. The team detained a man identified as Gorakh Pawar (30), who had come on a bike. Police recovered 50 notes of Rs 2000 denomination which later turned out to be counterfeit in the examination by bank officials. Pawar, a resident of Bhalwani in Pandharpur was subsequently placed under arrest.

Probing the leads from Pawar’s interrogation the teams arrested Vitthal Gajanan Shewale (38), from Patan in Satara and Jitendra Panigrahi (36) from Palghar. Police teams further seized more fake notes stashed by the two arrested later. As the probe advanced, police teams were sent to Gujarat where they arrested Raju alias Ranjeetsingh Parmar (38), Jitendrakumar Patel (26), Kirankumar Patel (38), all residents of Banaskantha in Gujarat with the last arrest in the case being made on July 11.

Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner Krishna Prakash said that in the elaborate investigation that was on for around three weeks, 1402 fake notes of Rs 2000 denomination and 929 notes of Rs 500 denomination were seized taking the total face value of the seizure to Rs 32,67,000. Police have also seized computers, printers, and a car from the suspects.