DRI seizes Rs 7.5 lakh in fake cash, arrests 1

Mumbai: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested a man from Mumbra’s Kausa area and seized fake Indian currency notes worth Rs 7.5 lakh, all in the denomination of Rs 2,000, on Thursday.

The agency has arrested three people in all from Mumbai and Bengaluru and seized the fake currency that was allegedly printed in Pakistan and was pushed into India via Bangladesh.

The accused, identified as Khuddus Baig (36), is a native of Karnataka and had procured the notes from West Bengal. Following his arrest, the DRI conducted raids in Bangalore and arrested two more persons including Baig’s brother-in-law and seized fake currency worth Rs 58,000 from them.

“Baig had been a habitual fake currency smuggler since 2016 but was never apprehended. He had this time procured fake currency worth Rs 10 lakh for Rs 5.6 lakh and had brought it to Mumbai to circulate it in the open market,” said a DRI officer.

Baig was in Mumbra to take shelter before circulating the money.

He had been to Islampur in West Bengal from where one of his another associates handed him the cash.

The DRI officials have sent the notes to the currency notes press to verify the quality and the security features that have been replicated in it. It will help ascertain if the newly formulated features have been copied.

The officials have registered a case as per the provisions of the Customs Act and are questioning the trio to find out how many times they had smuggled currency in the past.

The DRI has seized fake currency worth Rs 3.5 lakh in three different incidents between April and July from Hyderabad, Vishayi and Betiya.