Kingpin in minting counterfeit coins held in Delhi

New Delhi: At the time of the announcement of demonetization, the government had promised a complete elimination of fake notes. But even 48 days after demonetization, counterfeit currency notes continue to be seized from different parts of the country. Delhi Police has arrested a 39-year-old man, supposed to be the kingpin in minting counterfeit coins and seized counterfeit coins over Rs 17,000 from him, police said on Tuesday. Picture: ABP News The Special cell arrested Sweekar Luthra yesterday from Mohan garden, Uttam Nagar on the basis of a specific input, said DCP(Special Cell) Sanjeev Yadav. In October this year, Delhi Police had arrested a 42-year-old man from Rohini in outer Delhi and seized fake coins of Rs 40,000 face value from him. A few days later, the Special Cell had busted an inter-state fake currency racket with the arrest of two persons with counterfeit coins of Rs 5 and Rs 10 denomination worth Rs 5.85 lakh during raids at their hideouts in Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana. Accused Gulshan Kumar and his nephew Sachin were arrested from Shiv Vihar, Nilothi extension. The kingpin of the racket was identified as Sweekar Luthra, who was declared absconding and was evading arrest. Yesterday, around 9.05 PM, a white Maruti Celerio car was located on the Mohan Garden main road. The car, being driven by Sweekar, was chased and intercepted near Atul Chowk, said the officer. Police seized counterfeit coins worth Rs 17,390 in the denominations of Rs 5 and Rs 10 from his car, added the officer. "During 1997, his elder brother Upkar Luthra came in contact with one Gulshan Gambhir of Dehradun, who gave him the idea to enter the illegal trade of manufacturing of counterfeiting coins of Rs 5. "In 1999, Upkar, was arrested with the counterfeited coins of Rs 5 but he did not disclose Sweekar's name. Soon after being released, Upkar again established another unit for making counterfeit coins but was arrested. He didn't disclose his brother's name," said the officer. Till 2008-09, Upkar grew in the trade but his brother's name was still unexposed. Upkar escaped to Nepal and started managing the affairs of the illegal trade with respect to circulation of counterfeit coins from there. Sweekar took over the command of manufacturing the counterfeit coins. Surat, Gujarat The city police's crime branch on Tuesday arrested three persons with 600 counterfeit currency notes of the defunct Rs 1,000 denomination. Picture: ABP News Following a tip-off, crime branch officials nabbed three persons near a hospital in Limbayat area of the city, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Vishal Vaghela. Zakir Patel (40), one of the accused, claimed to be a British citizen and told the police that he had brought the notes from UK to exchange them with new notes, said Vaghela. Other two were identified as Faizal Patel (26) and Sarfaraz Yakub (35), both working as electricians. Picture: ABP News "Zakir Patel, who originally belongs to Bharuch, claimed he is a citizen of UK and works there as a teacher. He claimed to have acquired these 600 notes of Rs 1,000 in UK and come to India some time back," said the DCP. "We are yet to verify his claims about citizenship and acquisition of these notes with total face value of Rs 6 lakh," he said. "The trio claimed they wanted to exchange these fake notes with new notes by paying around 20 to 30 per cent commission. We are investigating their possible links with people who are into this illegal trade," said the DCP. Rajkot, Gujarat Fake currency with the face value of Rs 26.10 lakh, in the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denominations, were seized here on Monday and two persons arrested, police said. Picture: ABP News "The city Crime Branch personnel intercepted a car and recovered fake currency notes of face value of Rs 26 lakh in Rs 2,000 denomination and another Rs 10,000 in Rs 500 denomination," said Rajkot Police Commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot. "The notes were kept inside the speaker box of the car they were travelling," he told reporters. Police arrested Hriday Jagani and Lakshman Chauhan, both from Ahmedabad, for possession of the fake currency. Gehlot said the police have also recovered a high-quality colour printing machine from the two arrested persons. "It seems the machine was used to print the currency notes," he added. Police have identified the mastermind to be a person called Jignesh Shah, who they claim is a land broker from Ahmedabad. "Jignesh would find customers seeking to exchange their old currency notes and would order printing of notes after he struck a deal with them. They would exchange the new notes with their fake ones at 50 per cent discount. Thus they would have sold their Rs 26 lakh notes for Rs 13 lakh worth of original notes," the police commissioner said. Police have launched a manhunt for Shah as they believe that the accused may have supplied several such notes after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes announced on November 8. Of the two arrested, Jagani worked as a printer and had good technical know-how of printing and cutting notes with perfection. "The key idea was to slip in 5-6 fake notes in a bundle of 100 original notes and put them in circulation gradually. Thus they would try and pass off their fake currency with original. They even had prepared tags and seal of State Bank of India to ensure their notes look genuine," Gehlot said. "They would earn around Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 on supply of Rs 2 lakh," Gehlot said. Giving details of currency seizure post demonetisation, he said that so far around Rs 2 crore worth of old notes and Rs 70 lakh of new notes had been seized from Rajkot alone.