Two staff of money exchange firm held for issuing counterfeit foreign currency

CHENNAI: City Police on Saturday arrested two staff of a money exchange firm for allegedly issuing fake foreign currency notes to a software engineer who travelled to South East Asian countries recently.

JJ Nagar Police booked the money exchange staff based on a complaint from J Arun (32) of Kallkuppam near Ambattur. He works as a software engineer at a private firm in Sholinganallur. He had visited Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand for new year celebrations with his friends.

Before the trip, Arun met the money exchange officials through a common friend. Arun exchanged Rs 1.77 lakh and received US$ 2,100, while his friend Kannabiran exchanged Rs 75,000 and took US$ 300.

While they gave the dollars at a restaurant in Cambodia, the staff informed them that these were fake US dollars. Later they found $600 carried by Arun was fake and $200 possessed by Kannabiran was fake. Based on the complaint lodged by Arun on return, the JJ Nagar police registered a case and arrested S Arul Prakasam, a native of Ponneri, and V Satish, 52, of Avadi.

While Arul Prakasam worked as a manager at the money exchange, Satish worked as a cashier at the firm. The duo told police that they received the currency from another person. Following this, the cops let them off after taking an undertaking and further investigations are on.