Merchant Navy officer held with fake US Dollars

He was trying to exchange currency worth $10,000 for Indian rupees

Merchant Navy officer held with fake US Dollars

He was trying to exchange currency worth $10,000 for Indian rupees

A Merchant Navy officer was arrested for trying to exchange fake US $10,000 for Indian currency. A senior police official said that the officer was identified as Vishal Singh, a resident of Gagan Enclave in Ghaziabad UP. "Vishal works with a Denmark-based shipping firm. On Monday at around 2:30 pm, he went to Palika Bazar with a bag full of US dollars.

Maximum returns: Shakti Money Exchange Shop at Palika
Bazaar where the accused was caught. Pic/Imtiyaz Khan

He visited a shop of Ravi Mahajan, an RBI-authorised money exchanger, and gave him five $100 notes. Seeing the notes, Ravi immediately figured out that these were fake ones. He scolded Vishal for giving him fake currency. Finding that his deceit had been detected, Vishal tried to escape from there but was caught by two other employees of the shop," said a police official.

Ravi then called the police, who on reaching the spot, checked Vishal's bag. To their surprise, it was filled with 95 more notes of 100 denomination. The money exchanger told the cops that he had been running the money exchange shop for last 15 years and features on these dollars proved that these were not real.

The police then took Vishal to a nearby multinational bank and got the currency checked. The bank officials confirmed that all the currency was fake. The police then lodged an FIR under section 489B and 489 C of IPC against Vishal. "Vishal is on a day's police remand and we will try to find out from where had he procured these fake dollars," said the official.u00a0u00a0

The official added Vishal's relative had claimed that the currency was give to Vishal by someone and he was innocent. "First he tried to run away from the spot and when he was caught, he later claimed the dollars were part of his salary. These changing statements make him a prime suspect" said the police official. A son of a retired Indian Air Force official, Vishal had been working on a stipend of US $3000 per month with the shipping firm.u00a0