Mehdipatnam police arrest eight in fake currency racket; Rs 4.75 lakh seized

Mehdipatnam police arrested eight suspects in a fake currency racket, seizing Rs 4.75 lakh, vehicles, and phones. Prime suspect Ramesh printed Rs 500 notes, circulated via Instagram. Police traced the network through Altamash’s confession, leading to all arrests

Hyderabad: The Mehdipatnam police on Thursday arrested eight persons who were allegedly preparing and circulating fake Indian currency notes. Counterfeit currency with a face value of Rs 4.75 lakh was seized along with a car, three motorcycles and nine mobile phones.

The arrested are Kasthuri Ramesh (35), Abdul Waheed (21), Mohd Abdul Khadeer (21), Mohd Sohail (21), Mohd Fahad (23), Shaik Imran (23), Omer Khan (23) and Syed Altamash Ahmed (21).

---

According to G Chandra Mohan, DCP (south west), prime suspect Ramesh, was preparing fake currency notes of Rs 500 denomination and circulating them in the market through other suspects. He used a scanner and printer to make the currency notes.

“Ramesh posted a video on Instagram about fake currency note exchange. He issued four fake currency notes of Rs 500 denomination in exchange for one genuine note of Rs 500,” he said.

On coming across the video, Waheed and Omer contacted Ramesh and collected the fake currency notes from him. Afterwards, the duo exchanged it in the ratio of 1:3 with Sohail and Fahad, and finally Altamash took it in the ratio of 1:2.

“The chain of the suspects came to light when Altamash was caught. On interrogation, he revealed the names of others, and through them, the prime suspect was also nabbed,” said the DCP.