Man arrested with fake notes worth Rs 23.86 lakh from Mumbai airport

Joint Commissioner Crime, Santosh Rastogi and DCP Akbar Pathan (left) with his team displaying the high quality fake notes.

The Mumbai Crime branch on Sunday arrested a 36-year-old from Terminal 2 of the International airport and seized fake currency notes worth Rs 23.86 lakh.

Police said the accused, Javed Sheikh, is a resident of Kalwa in Thane. They added the seized notes have copied almost all security features of Rs2,000 denominations, except two. Officials said the agency has not ruled out a possible terror angle, as the fake notes seem to be printed in Pakistan, and smuggled to him from a third in Dubai, after which, the accused brought it to Mumbai on Sunday

"Based on specific information from the central agency, the trap was laid at Mumbai international airport by unit 08. He was detained from the bus stop of the airport once he arrived from Dubai. After frisking, we found fake notes of Rs 2,000 denomination, which was smuggled from Pakistan in Dubai," Santosh Rastogi (joint commissioner, Mumbai crime branch), said.

Akbar Pathan DCP, Detection (I) of Mumbai Crime Branch said the notes were kept inside the special cavity of a travelling bag and it took a lot of time to recover the amount, as the accused was not willing to reveal where the money was hidden.

Rastogi said, "The fake notes have copied almost all security features of original notes, except two, which is very difficult for a common person to distinguish."

He said the two important security features which were not copied in this high quality fake currency are the latent image with denominational numeral 2,000, which can be seen when the notes is held at a 45 degree angle at the eye level and the colour shift windowed security thread with the inscription 'Bharat', RBI and 2,000. "The colour of the thread changes from green to blue when the note is tilted. In the fake currency we have seized, both these security features are missing," Rastogi said.

The Reserve Bank of India, on its website, has 17 such security features to distinguish between original and fake notes of Rs 2,000 denomination."The notes are suspected to be printed in Pakistan. The accused have copied almost all security features of Rs 2,000 denomination, which cannot be identified by the naked eye," an officer privy to the investigation said.

Javed was arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sent to police custody after being produced in a holiday court on Sunday.

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