4 caught with counterfeit notes totalling 1.2 lakh

Ludhiana: Khanna police on Wednesday busted a racket in which four men had brought counterfeit currency notes of Rs 1.19 lakh from Uttar Pradesh and were planning to distribute them in Punjab.
Police have arrested Nirpal Singh Happy of Ghughrali Rajputan in Khanna, Naresh Kumar of Karnal (Haryana), and Kuldeep Naanu and Ravi Naanu of Panipat (Haryana). They had come to Khanna after collecting the counterfeit currency from Uttar Pradesh, where it had been printed.
The accused were arrested from a checkpost established at Amloh Chowk of Khanna, on the basis of a tip-off. Police have also seized the car in which they were travelling with the counterfeit notes.
Khanna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Amneet Kandol said all accused got in touch with each other on Facebook. Except for Ravi, all other accused have a criminal background and had been released on bail a few months ago.
They had gotten in touch with the printers in Uttar Pradesh through social media. Kandol added that had seized 227 counterfeit notes of Rs 500 and 30 counterfeit notes of Rs 200.
Superintendent of police (investigation) Pragya Jain said the accused used to get 50% commission for the amount they would circulate in the market. “Naresh was booked for murder in 2017. Kuldeep faces cases of cheating, forgery and snatching. They met in jail and became friends. On the other hand, Nirpal was arrested in Lebanon in 2018 for overstaying there and came out of jail in 2021. Thereafter, he came to India. He got in touch with Naresh and Kuldeep through Facebook. All accused were unemployed and criminal-minded.”
The police have lodged an FIR against the accused.