Trio held in possession of counterfeit notes

A sub-inspector led flying squad on Saturday night secured a man on suspicion as he was found wandering in the market area and a search on him led to the seizure of fake currency in the denominations of Rs 500 to the tune of Rs 50,000. He was identified as Vimal Jain (30), who was running a remote control shop in Pattalam.

Based on his inputs, J Chetan Patel (25), who runs a chemicals company, was secured from Erukkanchery and counterfeit to the face value of Rs 66,500 was seized. He told the police that he received the notes from Chellaram (45) of MKB Nagar.

The ploce questioned Chellaram and he revealed that he reached the city two months ago to exchange it for the original. “He claims that he incurred a loss of Rs 50 lakh in business in Rajasthan and was struggling when a friend told him about the fake currencies and gave him counterfeit for Rs 50 lakh for just Rs 50,000.

Chellaram brought a portion of the sum to Chennai and started distributing the currencies through people he knows to get them exchanged for the original,” said an official. Notes worth Rs 2.91 lakh was seized from him. All three men were remanded in judicial custody on Sunday.

The investigation officer said that the case would be transferred to the Central Crime Branch and steps are underway to trace the men who gave the fake notes to Chellaram.