Chennai police busts fake currency racket; Ex-serviceman, lawyer held
A team led by Triplicane Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Deshmukh Sekar Sanjay conducted investigations and arrested two elderly men
Police with the seized counterfeit notes.
CHENNAI: The presence of mind by a vegetable vendor to check the veracity of a currency note and alert the police helped the City police bust a counterfeit currency racket and seized more than Rs 45 lakh in fake currency notes. Two persons - an ex-serviceman and a lawyer were arrested by the Nungambakkam police on Thursday. One of their accomplice, a printing press owner has been secured, police said.
On Thursday, Mani (26) of Pushpa Nagar, Nungambakkam, who runs a vegetable shop near Valluvar Kottam alerted the police after a person gave four Rs 500 notes after buying vegetables from him. Mani, who suspected it to be a fake currency immediately informed the police control room after which a team from Nungambakkam Police reached the scene.
After confirming the currency to be fake, the police team took the person to the police station and interrogated him. A team led by Triplicane Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Deshmukh Sekar Sanjay conducted investigations and arrested two elderly men- A Annamalai (65) of Balaji Nagar, Pallikaranai and V Subramanian (62) of State bank colony, Virugambakkam for circulating the fake currency.
Annamalai is an ex-serviceman while Subramanian is a lawyer, police said. Investigations revealed that the accused had manufactured the Rs 500 counterfeit currencies by using printing and cutting machines at a place in Virugambakkam.
Based on the information provided by the accused, police searched the printing press and seized fake currencies worth Rs 45.2 lakh. Printing machines, paper cutting machines and other equipment were seized from the place.
The duo were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.
Police were appreciative of the vegetable vendor's help in busting the fake currency racket and appealed to public to be vigilant.
"Paper quality will definitely be different. Our request to public is to inform the police immediately if they are suspicious of fake currency during any cash transaction. It is a serious crime which affects the economy of a nation, " DCP Deshmukh Sekar Sanjay said.