Lid off FICN gang; two held

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 10

The police personnel of South-West District has busted a syndicate involved in printing and circulating fake Indian currency notes (FICN) with the arrest of two accused Ashish (23) of Uttam Nagar, and his accomplice Krishan Bhardwaj (25) of Najafgarh.

The mastermind of this racket is Ashish, a mobile phone technician while Bhardwaj is a computer geek. The duo connived into printing fake notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denomination with high quality scanner and printer.

Thereafter trading these notes with unsuspecting vendors in weekly bazaars and rehdi wallas as they viewed the introduction of new currencies as an opportunity to make quick money.

Accused Aashish was very ambitious and wanted to live a luxurious life and construct a bungalow at his native place in Agra, UP.

After demonetisation, several incidents of circulation of fake notes came to notice. Senior police officer in-charge of AATS was assigned the task to collect criminal intelligence and arrest accused persons who were involved in running the racket. Informers were deployed, criminal intelligence was collected, modus operandi of the accused was analyzed.

“On January 9, a secret information was received by the police that two persons having fake currencies are trading it at fifty percent of the amount. A raiding party was deployed as decoy customer who along with a shadow witness struck the deal with accused persons. A trap was laid near Shamshan Ghat, Kiran Garden, Bindapur and in the evening accused Ashish and Bhardwaj arrived there and each handed over Rs 4,000 in Rs 500 denominations to the cop and received Rs 2,000 from him. The raiding party   arrested both of them,” said Surender Kumar, DCP, South West District.