Pune fake currency racket: Accused procured paper for notes, other material from Chinese e-commerce site

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Days after the police busted a counterfeit currency racket at Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune and arrested six persons, it has come to light that the accused had procured the paper for printing fake notes and other raw material from a Chinese e-commerce portal, an official said.

The police have so far seized more than 400 counterfeit notes of Rs 500 denomination from the accused, who used to print the currency notes, newswire PTI reported.

The racket was unearthed on February 25 after the police apprehended a person named Hrutik Khadse and seized from him 140 notes of Rs 500 denomination. During the probe, they found that the notes were fake, the PTI report said.

"During the interrogation, the accused revealed that they printed the fake currency notes at Dighi (in Pimpri Chinchwad). When the premises were raided, it was found that five more people were involved in the printing of counterfeit currency and seized 300 notes of Rs 500 denomination," a Pimpri Chinchwad police official said.

A printer, a laptop, Indian currency paper, ink, paper cutting machine and other things were also seized from the site, he said.

"So far, we have seized 440 notes of Rs 500 denomination, 4,684 partially printed notes, and 1,000 sheets of Indian currency papers from the accused," he added.

"During the investigation, it was found that one of the accused had opened an account on a Chinese e-commerce website and ordered the currency paper for printing the notes from that country," he said.

All the accused are currently in police custody and further investigation into the case is on, the official said.

On February 28 newswire ANI reported: "As per credentials shared by sources, police officials stopped and detained a suspect who came to a decided location riding a motorcycle, and after being searched, police found 140 fake notes of Rs 500 denominations from him.'

It was revealed by the accused, Ritik Khadse, that these notes were being printed in a commercial shop in the Bhosari area using an offset printing machine.

After receiving the information, a team of police immediately rushed to the said shop and found an offset printing machine, printing ink and other printing material, along with special papers used for printing counterfeit notes and some half- and full-printed notes, reported ANI. (With inputs from agencies)