Coimbatore: Fake currency racket busted, four men held

COIMBATORE: The RS Puram police busted a gang that was circulating counterfeit currency with the arrest of four men, one of them an IAS aspirant , on Sunday morning. Police seized fake notes amounting to Rs 11.57 lakh, a scanner , printer and Rs 24,000 from them. The seized counterfeit currencies were in the denominations of Rs 2,000, Rs 500 , Rs 200 , Rs 100 and Rs 50.

An investigation officer said two other members of the gang were on the run and that they had formed a special team to nab the duo.

The officer identified the arrested as A Dhanraj, 35, of Virudhunagar district, S Ranjith, 23, of Ganapathy, C Praveen Kumar, 23, of Pappireddipatti in Dharmapuri district, and V Boopathy, 26, of Kasipalayam in Erode district. According to the officer, Dhanraj was the kingpin of the gang. “He had rented a house at Idikarai, where he used to scan the original currency and take copies of them by using a colour Xerox machine. He has been doing this for the past three months. Earlier, he was working as an electrician.”

Dhanraj, the officer said, befriended Ranjith two months ago. “He offered Ranjith five counterfeit currency notes for each original currency. Ranjith distributed the counterfeit currency notes in Gandhipuram and Ganapathy areas.” Ranjith then made acquaintance with Praveen Kumar, who was attending an IAS coaching centre in Gandhipuram, and Boopathy, a marketing executive with a private firm. While Praveen was residing in a rental house with his family at Varadharajapuram near Singanallur, Boopathy was staying with his family at Negamam.

Praveen and Boopathy used to get three counterfeit currencies for each original currency from Ranjith. “The two were caught red-handed by a section of shopkeepers while trying to circulate the counterfeit currencies at Gandhi Park on Saturday evening,” the officer said.

The two were later handed over to the RS Puram police, who questioned them. Based on the information the duo provided, RS Puram police sub-inspector M Velliraj and team nabbed Dhanraj and Ranjith the same day.

All the four were booked under Sections 489 (B), (C) of the Indian Penal Code and arrested on Sunday morning. The officer said Dhanraj was facing a counterfeit currency case in Virudhunagar district. “He was booked under Section 489 (D) of the IPC also.”

P Perumal, deputy commissioner of police, said two other accused in the case were still at large. “The special team is looking for them and they would nab the duo soon.”