Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Counterfeit currency, seized in Delhi Thursday, has been now found to have a face value of Rs.2.24 crore, not Rs.6 crore as announced earlier, Delhi Police said Friday, adding that the fake money, which is barely discernible from the genuine item, had been brought from Pakistan to destabilise India’s economy.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arun Kampani said the seized currency was sent by Iqbal Kana, a notorious counterfeiter who had fled to Pakistan, through a Delhi resident, Hassan, who had allegedly travelled to Pakistan to procure the money.

The two men, transporting the money on autorickshaws in west Delhi’s Dabri area and in Karol Bagh area of West Delhi, have been identified as Ash Mohammed and Zeeshan Khan.

As per a senior police official, the wrappers seized from the clothes used to conceal fake currency had the names of five companies — Safari Textiles Mills, Four Star Sidiki Processing Mill, Maharani Collection, Kohinoor Suiting and Usmaan Naiem Fabrics — all based in Pakistan’s Faisalabad city.

Kampani said that Ash Mohammad is a key associate of Kana.

“Hassan, a resident of Sitapuri in Dabri, had gone to Pakistan to meet Kana for procuring the consignment of of fake currency,” he said adding that police were on his trail.

According to police sources, the seized money was initially estimated to have a notional value of around Rs.6 crore but a final count had placed the amount to be Rs.2.24 crore.

The two autorickshaw drivers, one of them identified as Mahesh, were also detained but not placed under arrest with police saying that they were being questioned.

Police had Jan 2 got a tip-off that Kana, a resident of Uttar Pradesh who sneaked into Pakistan after the Central Bureau of Investigation and other agencies were after him, was planning to pump in large amount of fake currency into India.

“Mohammed is also from the same district and his link with Kana came to light after the collective information of several police teams, that were sent to Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and adjoining states to procure more information about him,” said Kampani.

A Special Cell team managed to track down an auto-rickshaw overloaded with bundles entering Sitapuri Thursday afternoon.

Kampani said as the tempo stopped just in front of a house and a man got down, he was arrested and identified as Khan. The vehicle was checked and found to be loaded with 19 bundles containing bales of cloths.

“Each bundle was containing bales of ladies suits fabric, wrapped around a cardboard sheet, labelled with different brand labels suggesting that these were packed somewhere in Pakistan,” Kampani said.

These cardboard sheets were found to have concealed cavities from which fake currency with a face value of over Rs.1.18 crore was recovered.

Police interrogated Khan and driver Mahesh and on information obtained from them, another team was sent towards Karol Bagh to search and trace the other consignment being transported by Mohammed in another tempo.

Mohammed was also apprehended with 14 bundles of ladies suit fabrics in which the fake currency with a face value of Rs.1.06 crore was concealed.

“All the fake notes recovered from the two tempos were very similar in appearance and texture with genuine Indian currency. A fine quality of texture paper was used and certain security features inserted, which are not easily detectable,” Kampani said.