Even after 6 years of DeMo, circulation of fake notes continues to pose challenge

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Economic Offences Wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) arrested three persons allegedly involved in manufacturing and supplying fake currency notes to the people under the pretext of providing them with large amounts of loans. The arrested have been identified as Pichhi Muthu, 48, Nallakanni, 53, and Subramanyam, 60, all residents of Tamil Nadu.

The police claimed to have seized counterfeit currency notes of the face value of Rs 1.28 crore from the accused. Circulation of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) in the country continues to pose a challenge even after the 2016 demonetisation, whose key objective was to eradicate counterfeiting of notes.

The number of counterfeit notes of 2,000 denomination detected in the system was 13,604 pieces during 2021-22, up 54.6% from the preceding financial year. Bengaluru Joint Commissioner of Police, CCB, Sharanappa Dhage said that the police busted the gang based on a tip-off that a person had been transporting counterfeit currency notes in a bus.

The CCB sleuths raided and arrested Pichamathu and the leads he gave led to the arrest of two others. Police have recovered 6,203 notes of 2,000 face value and 174 notes of 500 face value, which amounted to Rs 1.28 crore. Police have recovered printers and other devices used to print the counterfeit currency, he said.

Further, it was revealed that the gang has several similar cases of cheating registered against them in Tamil Nadu. Pichhi Muthu and Nallakanni used to pose as financiers and Subramanyam as their auditor. The trio would approach people needing urgent loans and offer to provide them huge sums at a low interest.

The trio would then take the person interested in a loan to a sub-registrar office, register a loan deed, make the person pay 1 percent of the loan amount as a processing fee, and give the loanee counterfeits before fleeing from the spot.