Mahabubabad: Police arrested four members, fake currency seized

Mahabubabad: The police on Friday arrested four members of a family suspected of printing and circulating fake currency. The accused have been identified as Samala Srinivas, his wife Bhagyalaxmi, sons Sai Charan and Akhil of Narsampet in Warangal Rural district. The police seized fake currency with a face value of Rs 69,900, besides Rs 29,870 original notes from the accused during a vehicle check at Korukondapally-Inugurthi crossroads.

According to police, Srinivas who worked as a RMP doctor in Narsampet for some time shifted to Thorrur in search of livelihood. After he incurred losses in the hotel business, he shifted his family to Hyderabad in 2017 and started to eke out a livelihood by running an auto-rickshaw. His elder son Sai Charan who is interested in film industry had produced short films – Vachchesaane Ninne Kori and Unnattundi Oopiri. Against this backdrop, in need of finances Srinivas wanted to make easy money by printing counterfeit currency.

Srinivas, who used to watch Youtube videos learned how to print fake currency. He procured a colour printer, paper and started to print notes in the denomination of Rs 2,000, Rs 500 and Rs 200. He chose to circulate such notes in rural areas so that nobody would identify them. The police who received complaints of fake currency from two persons of Upparapally village under Kesamudram mandal started investigation. It led to the arrest of Srinivas and his family members on Friday. According to police, Srinivas had so far circulated fake currency with a face value of Rs 2 lakh. The police seized two printers from the residence of Srinivas in Hyderabad. Mahabubabad Superintendent of Police N Koti Reddy commended DSP Naresh Kumar, Inspector Venkataratnam and Kesamudram Sub-Inspector B Sathish others for arresting the accused.