Chhattisgarh police seizes fake currency printed by Maoists

A colour printer, one black and white printer and one power inverter, 200 bottles of ink and bundles of fake currency of 50, 100, 200 and 500 denominations, four printer cartridges, nine printer rollers and a gun were found.

Kothagudem: In a first of its kind development, Chhattisgarh police seized samples of counterfeit currency, printers and printing ink in large quantities and other material from a Maoist hideout in the forests of Korajguda in Sukma district.

Sukma Superintendent of Police, Kiran G Chavan told the media on Sunday that based on a tip off about counterfeit currency being printed by Maoist Konta area committee, a joint team of district police, DRG Bastar Fighters and CRPF 50 Bn carried out search operations in Mylasore, Korajguda, Danteshpuram and nearby areas Saturday evening.

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On spotting the security forces, naxals escaped under the cover of the forests near Korajguda. Upon searching the area one colour printer, one black and white printer and one power inverter, 200 bottles of ink and bundles of fake currency of 50, 100, 200 and 500 denominations, four printer cartridges, nine printer rollers and a gun were found, the SP said.

In addition to that six wireless sets, magazine pouch, Maoist uniform cloth and huge quantity of explosive materials were recovered. The police learnt from the sources that in the year 2022, one or two naxal cadres of each area committee in west Bastar were trained to print fake currency by senior cadres. The fake currency was being circulated in the weekly markets of the Bastar region. Maoists who claim to be working for the interests of tribals were deceiving them by using fake money to buy the goods produced by them. Maoists were trying to damage the Indian economy by circulating the fake currency, Chavan said.

The Maoists were under pressure from the intensive police search operations and presence of police camps in the region and facing shortage of funds. To address the problem they were resorting to printing and circulating fake currency, he added.