Hyderabad: 5 arrested for printing, circulating fake currency

Hyderabad: Five persons, including two students and a former Border Security Force constable, were arrested by the West Zone Task Force for printing and circulating counterfeit currency notes in the State. The arrested were: C Santosh Kumar (29), a photographer, J Sai Kumar (24), a courier boy, two students Dharmaji Neeraj Kumar (21), Jaligam Ram (20) and Sunkari Srinivas (31), an ex-BSF constable who was dismissed in March 2020. All were natives of Siddipet. The police seized counterfeit currency with a face value of Rs 16 lakh from them.

According to City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar, "The five persons were printing the counterfeit currency at a house in Siddipet, using a laptop and photocopier. Santosh Kumar, who runs a photo studio, and is the prime suspect.

The other accused helped him in printing and circulating fake currency after the gang purchased a laptop and a printer. They printed the currency notes after scanning the original Rs 500, cut it to original size before packing in bundles. They supplied the notes to people in the ratio 1:3 to circulate in the market."

The officer, while explaining the difference between original and counterfeit notes, said, "The content on original currencies are embossed whereas the content on counterfeit currencies is only printed. Similarly, on every original currency on the left side, there are five lines where one can get a feel of embossing, but in duplicate notes, the embossing is missing. A person cannot feel it. As per the manufacturing of original notes, there is a combination of a blue and red security thread. If a note is turned left or right, both colors can be seen. But in the fake currency, only one color is visible.

The original notes have an angled impact in them whereas the duplicate does not have it. The duplicate notes stay stiff as they lack an angle in them. Moreover, the quality of paper is very important, because the original paper used for printing notes is very fine and thin, but the duplicates are a bit thicker. Their quality is rough. As most common people do not know these features, the accused took advantage and cheated the gullible." As Task Force was tipped off about the gang that was in city to sell fake notes, the police laid a trap at Yousufguda and nabbed the accused, handed them over to the Jubilee Hills PS for further booking of cases.