Foreigners selling counterfeit US dollar bills held in Bengaluru

Two Cameroonians were arrested from a hotel room by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) over their alleged involvement in a counterfeit currency racket.

On Wednesday, Basavaraj Teli, an inspector in the CCB’s Organised Crime Wing, and his team raided the room of a hotel on Dr Rajkumar Road and seized 900 100-dollar bills, four mobile phones, a colour printer, two torches, a bottle of liquid chemical and powder used in making counterfeit bills. The doll bills are worth Rs 80 lakh in Indian currency.

The CCB identified the suspects as Beyack Samuel Raoul, 43, and Pierre Cornaeille Mbarga, 50.

The CCB said Raoul came to India on a medical attendant visa valid from February 3 to May 2. After the visa expiry, he stayed on without revealing the patient he actually came to attend. Mbarga didn’t produce his passport or visa but merely claimed that his visa had expired.

The two confessed to police that they lived in OMBR Layout before moving to the hotel. They took photocopies of genuine US dollar bills and planned to exchange them with local people for Indian currency. They offered Rs 1 crore worth of US dollars for Rs 10 lakh Indian currency.

Police suspect that a few have already fallen victim to the duo.

A case has been registered under the Foreigners Act, the Passport Act and IPC sections 489c (possession of forged or counterfeit currency) and section 489b (using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency notes or banknotes).