Hyderabad: The Cyberabad police busted an inter-state gang of two people circulating fake Indian currency notes and seized an amount of Rs 8,55,000 from their possession.
Additionally, fake currency material (HP Colour Printer, Canon Scanner, Screen-Printing material, mobile phones and FICN) worth Rs 11200 was also retrieved from the gang.
On a tip-off, the sleuths of the Special Operation Team, Shamshabad Zone, and a team of Shamshabad police from Cyberabad conducted raids at the Grand Hotel, Thondupally, Shamshabad and apprehended a gang of two members indulged in printing and circulating fake currency denominations of Rs 500, Rs 200, Rs 100 and Rs 50 notes into the market.
Thomandra Ranjith Singh, 37 and Malasla Mohan Rao, 43, who were previously booked in criminal cases from East Godavari and Vishakhapatnam were arrested. The police imposed sections 257, 489-A (imprisonment for life), 489-B (Using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency-notes or bank-notes), 489-D (possessing instruments or materials for forging or counterfeiting currency), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly-delivery of property) of IPC and120 (b) of Shamshabad PS against them.
Property seized
In addition to fake currency notes, net cash worth Rs 2200, Smart Phones-2, Keypad Phone-1, Monitor (Enter)-1, Keyboard (frontech)-1, CPU(LG)-1, Mouse-1, JK excel Bond Papers, Laminator XL-12-1, Screen Printing Set (Clamp, Colours, inks, Reducer, Squeezer), Laser Colour Printer (HP)-1, Colour Printer(epsilon)-1, Cutting Machine, Wooden frames with Watermarks were seized by the cops from the possession of the accused.
Modus Operandi
Kingpin Ranjith Singh hatched a plan with his associate Mohan Rao a native of Andhra Pradesh with the criminal intention of circulating fake notes into genuine currency and printing them at the hotel in Shamshabad.
The duo contacted other fake currency agents through Instagram and Telegram, who operated businesses in various states including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, with their agents on a 1:3 ratio of the original currency.
They mixed fake Indian currency notes with genuine currency notes and circulated them at night, in crowded places like vegetable markets, small business vendors, fruit markets, kirana shops, and rythu bazaar.
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