Surat: Two persons were arrested in Gujarat’s Surat city with “high quality” Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) with a face value of Rs 9,000, allegedly supplied from Bangladesh, police said Monday. One of the arrested accused, Suresh Lathidadiya, is booked in three cases related to FICN, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is investigating, they said.
Lathidadiya bought FICN with a face value of Rs 6 lakh from a wanted accused from West Bengal for Rs 2 lakh, and the latter had procured the notes from Bangladesh, the Surat Special Operations Group (SOG) said in a statement.
Acting on a tip-off, SOG officials raided an apartment in the Puna locality of the city and arrested Vijay Chauhan (27) and Suresh Lathidadiya (55), both involved in a catering business, they said. The duo had 18 units of fake notes of Rs 500 denomination, having a face value of Rs 9,000, in their possession, it said.
The accused would exchange FICN with genuine notes at vegetable and paan shops. “The accused claimed they bought FICN with Rs 6 lakh face value from Tahir Sheikh, a resident of Malda in West Bengal, for Rs 2 lakh,” the SOG said.
Sheikh, a wanted accused in the case, had procured the fake notes from Bangladesh, they said. Besides fake currency, the police recovered a detector machine and a few mobile phones, as well as Rs 1.03 lakh cash that the accused collected by exchanging counterfeit notes, the SOG said.
