Six arrested for producing fake Rs 2000, other denomination notes

HYDERABAD: Less than 20 days after the Reserve Bank of India released new Rs 2,000 notes, Rachakonda police on Saturday arrested six persons for producing fake Rs 2,000 and other Indian currency notes at Ibrahimpatnam in the suburbs of the city. Police also seized Rs 100, Rs 50 and Rs 20 fake notes too. Police recovered `2.22 lakh worth fake currency notes from their possession.
Addressing a press conference, Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat on Saturday said K Sainath alias Babu, a butcher; G Anjaiah, a farmer; S Ramesh, a businessman; C Satyanarayana, a private employee; K Sridhar Goud, a mechanic and A Vijay Kumar, a sales executive, were arrested while two of their associates Kalyan and Srikanth were absconding.
“After demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the culprits decided to first print fake notes of small denomination and circulate them in the market. After the RBI released the new Rs 2,000 note, they successfully printed it and were waiting for an opportunity to circulate them in the market,'' Bhagwat said.
Acting on a tip-off, Special Operations Team of the Rachakonda police raided the photocopy centre and arrested them.
According to police, kingpin Sainath came in contact with one Anjaiah through his friend Ganesh, who was serving a sentence at the Cherlapally jail for his role in a murder case. Anjaiah too was in the jail at that time for circulating counterfeit no tes.
As Sainath was in need of money, Anjaiah influenced him to look for fake currency.
Sainath first contacted Sri kanth in Nizamabad and the latter offered three fake notes in exchange of a genuine one.
Sainath paid Rs 2.90 lakh, but Srikanth failed to arrange the fake notes. Later, Sainath along with Ramesh, Satyam, Vijay and Kalyan bought a co lour photocopy machine and took it to Sircilla and attempted to make fake notes, but co uld not get it precisely.“Sridhar Goud, a friend of Sainath, came to know about their plans and he told them that they can try to make fake notes on their own. So, Sainath, Ramesh and Sridhar bought another small photo copy machine in August 2016 and after many attempts, t they successfully printed fake notes. Initially, they printed a few number of notes of small denomination and we re successful in circulating them in the market," the officer said.