Cyberabad cops bust interstate fake currency racket

The Cyberabad cops have busted an interstate counterfeit currency racket circulating fake Indian currency notes in Telangana and other states.

While 13 members of the notorious gang were apprehended, three are absconding.

The offenders are from Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. One of them, Kovvuri Vinodh Satish Kumar Reddy, is an MBBS doctor from Bikkavolu in AP, while the main accused Koneti Rajesh, a native of Gopalpur, Odisha, is a dance master.

Also Read | Fake call centre busted in Maharashtra's Palghar; 49 employees held

The police seized counterfeit currency notes of Rs 30,68,500, Rs 60,500 cash and 13 mobile phones.

Cops detected the counterfeit currency circulation while acting on a complaint from a hotel supervisor in Raidurgam stating that Rajesh had, at the time of vacating his room, handed fake notes to him.

Also Read | Part-time work scam: Bengaluru man cheated of Rs 45 lakh

“On further investigation, we found that Rajesh and some others ganged up and were circulating fake currency notes in the market,” Stephen Raveendra, Cyberabad commissioner of police, said.

Counterfeit currency notes are mostly circulated at small grocery shops in villages, weekly vegetable markets, pan kiosks, wine shops, petrol pumps, rice mills, milk outlets, events like college fests, scrap shops, and labour addas (pick-up points), the police said