Koraput: In one of the biggest hauls, the Koraput police on Tuesday seized counterfeit currency with a face value of a whopping Rs 7.9 crore from a car during a regular vehicular inspection drive under Sunki beat house area.
Koraput SP Varun Guntupalli said that a police team intercepted a car bearing Chhattisgarh registration number during the regular enforcement drive. The team detected four trolley bags containing bundles of fake currency in the denomination of Rs 500. Later, it was found that all the notes were fake, he said.
Preliminary investigation reveals that the three occupants of the car were on their way from Raipur in Chhattisgarh to deliver the consignment to someone in Vizag.
The police seized 1,580 bundles (each bundle consists of 100 notes in the face value of Rs 500 denomination) worth Rs 7.9 crores.
“We have arrested three persons who hail from Chhattisgarh. Cash worth Rs 35,000, five mobile phones and some debit cards have been seized from their possession. Our investigation is on to bust the entire racket,” said the Koraput SP.
Senior police officials said that the fake notes seized are not of high quality. However, for common man it might be difficult to identify such fake notes if pushed along with genuine currency.
The SP further said, “We are yet to get any information regarding political links even though it is speculated that the money was meant to be used in Andhra Pradesh where panchayat polls are being held. We will bring all the accused on remand and try to ascertain how they used to prepare the fake notes even though they claim to have burnt the printer.”
(Edited By Suryakant Jena)