Fake notes with Rs 14 lakh face value seized in Palghar; 3 held

Palghar: Police have seized counterfeit currency notes, with a face value of Rs 14 lakh and 'Children Bank of India' printed on them, and arrested three persons in this connection in Maharashtra's Palghar district, an official said on Tuesday.

After receiving a tip that some persons would reach Pali village to exchange counterfeit notes for genuine currency, a police team laid a trap on February 22, Wada police station's inspector Dattatreya Kindre said.

The police spotted a man carrying a bag and roaming in a suspicious manner in the area.

Later, two other persons arrived there in a car and started discussing something with the man.

The police team caught the three persons. During checking, they seized from the man fake notes in the denominations of Rs 100 and Rs 500, with a face value of Rs 14 lakh, the official said.

Also, genuine currency notes of Rs 1 lakh were seized from the duo who came in the car, he said.

The genuine currency bills were found kept on the top and bottom of the bundles, while fake currency notes, with the 'Children Bank of India' name printed on them, were inserted in between, the official said.

The 32-year-old man and the two other persons, aged 36 and 56, all hailing from Palghar, were later arrested, he said.

The man had planned to exchange fake notes with a face value of Rs 3 lakh for the genuine currency of Rs 1 lakh, the police said.

A case has been registered against the three persons under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections, including 318(4) (cheating), 180 (possession of forged or counterfeit coin, government stamp, currency-notes or bank-notes) and 182 (making or using documents resembling currency-notes or bank-notes), the official said.

The police were conducting a probe to ascertain the source of the fake currency notes.

Earlier also, fake notes had been seized on two occasions from Gorhe and Shirish Pada areas here wherein the accused printed the counterfeit notes at their houses and circulated them, the official said.

In the latest case, the accused man had procured the fake notes from some source and was trying to circulate them in exchange of the genuine currency, he said.