The accused, Sk Ahmed was nabbed by the STF team with assistance from Rourkela district police on Saturday. The accused hails from Delhi and was staying at sector 15 in Rourkela.
The accused has been booked under sections 489-A/489-B/489-C/489-D/120(B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). One laptop, color printer and other incriminating articles have been seized from the possession of the accused during the raid.
It is pertinent to mention here that the STF had arrested four persons and seized fake Indian currency notes worth over Rs 29 lakh in July this year.
The Bhubaneshwar Regional Unit of the DRI had seized fake Indian currency notes of Rs 2000 denomination (two bundles- 100 PCs and 50 pcs) with the face value of 3 lakhs after intercepting a passenger travelling in Kamakhya-Yesvantpur Express at Khurda Road railway station on Saturday.
After investigation, the DRI found that the accused is a resident of Pahad Gav village in Sahebganj District of Jharkhand.
During the course of investigation, the accused identified as Simar confessed that he had allegedly collected the fake notes from a person at Kaliachak in Malda district. The person had reportedly collected the notes from neighbouring Bangladesh.
Sources said, Kaliachak is infamous for circulation of fake currencies into India. It is suspected that a major fake currency note racket is behind such operation as the accused is believed to have been engaged in transportation of the fake notes at regular intervals
Meanwhile, former top police official have urged the NIA to notify the foreign ministries of both India and Bangladesh after carrying out further probe.
Sources said, the fake currency was seized while being smuggled to Bangalore from Bangladesh.
An accused identified as Simar has been detained for further investigation in connection with the case. As Simar hails from a village close to Bangladesh border, it is suspected that the fake notes have been procured from Bangladesh.
DRI officials informed that 150 fake notes in Rs 2,000 currency denomination notes have been seized.
It is suspected that a major fake currency note racket is behind such operation as the accused is believed to have been engaged in transportation of the fake notes at regular intervals.
The arrest could be just the tip of the iceberg while a detailed probe has begun to bust the entire racket as fake notes are regularly being seized from several parts of Odisha including Bhadrak, Balasore and other parts of the State.
The two accused identified as Hasim Ali and Md Farhad Khan, who were arrested from Jaleswar and Soro respectively, are being interrogated by the police for further leads.
“Following a tip off, we conducted raids at several places in the district and seized three fake notes of Rs 2000 denomination. A total of Rs 1.54 lakh have been seized and seven persons have been arrested in the case so far,” informed IIC of Simulia police station Sanjay Kumar Parida. Police sources informed that the ongoing racket might have links in Kolkata.
On April 15, five persons of the same racket were arrested and counterfeit notes worth Rs 1.48 lakh were seized. Earlier on April 10, one Bishnu Nayak was nabbed by the cops while trying to deposit fake notes amounting to Rs 44,000. Nayak, during interrogation revealed vital information following which police started the crackdown.
The accused have been identified as Satyanarayan Panda, Tarakant Biswal, Salim, Sk Rizuan and Manoranjan Barik.
All the accused were arrested by Semulia police while carrying out investigation into deposit of fake notes in the Samiti.
According to reports, one Bishnu Nayak had earlier deposited Rs 1.50 lakh and out of which Rs 44,000 was found to be fake on April 10.
Later, cops had detained Nayak and he revealed the source from where he had got the money.
"We had formed special teams and raids were conducted at different places in the district. We have seized Rs 1.48 lakh fake notes in Rs 2,000 denomination and arrested five persons," said Balasore SDPO (Sadar), Pravash Chandra Pal.
Though it is suspected the accused are part of a major counterfeit currency racket, further investigation to ascertain the source of procurement of the fake notes is still on, Pal added.
The racket was busted by Nuapada police after it nabbed two persons and seized nearly 45 fake notes of Rs 100 denomination following a raid at Chalanpada under Khariar police limits.
The accused- Damodar Challan and Ramaswar Bag were arrested from the spot and later tipped police about other members of the gang who were operating from Kalahandi district.
Basing on the information shared by the duo, a raid was then conducted at Chichia and Temeri villages under Golamunda police limits in Kalahandi district and three persons were subsequently arrested.
They have been identified as Bhabani Shankar Bag and Santosh Sharaff from Kalahandi district and Arabinda Bag. 67 fake notes were recovered from their possession.
Senior officials informed that a computer, five mobiles, CPU, printers, pen drive and other printing materials were seized from the raid on a computer shop at Khariar.
Meanwhile, further investigation in connection with the incident is on.
The gang was busted in an area under Civil Line police station limits on Friday, they said.
According to Circle Officer Deeksha Sharma, a police team during checking recovered the counterfeit currency notes from Iqbalm, Mosam, Rakib and Rahisa and arrested the four members of the gang involved in circulating the fake notes in the area.
Police are interrogating the arrested accused, the CO said.