Bengaluru: Police bust gang that tampered with serial numbers of Rs 2,000 notes to con people
Bengaluru (PTI): The Bengaluru police have busted a 10-member gang that allegedly tampered with the serial numbers of Rs 2,000 currency notes "to sell them" to gullible people at exorbitant prices, promising them that performing a "money rain ritual" using the notes of a specific serial number would be a boon and multiply their wealth, an official said on Tuesday.
The action followed a complaint filed by a manager of Reserve Bank of India at Halasuru Gate Police Station on October 17, and Rs 18 lakh worth Rs 2,000 denomination notes were seized from the gang, police said.
The complaint states, the gang tampered with the serial number of currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination to give them a serial number that was already withdrawn from circulation by the RBI. A case was booked based on the complaint, they added.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh told reporters that the RBI says notes are original but the serial numbers are tampered with.
The gang sold the number-altered notes for Rs 4 lakh a piece, promising that performing a ritual using the notes of a specific serial number would bestow them good fortune and they would get "100-times more money", he added.
"The accused have been arrested at different stages. They confessed that they cheated their victims, saying that if they had Rs 2,000 currency notes bearing a specific number, they would get a boon," the officer explained.
The first breakthrough happened on October 24 when the police arrested a person at his residence at Cubbonpet.
"Upon interrogation, the accused confessed to having deposited Rs 40,000 at the bank, stating that he had received the money from two acquaintances who had promised him a commission. These two persons were traced and apprehended near Mysore Bank Circle on the same day," says a statement from the police.
However police did not elaborate on what was the role of this person in this web of crime.
More people were arrested from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh based on further investigation, he said.
"During interrogation, they confessed that they had cheated the public by falsely claiming that if they performed a special ritual using Rs 2,000 notes (except the "O", "OO", "OP", and "OU" series printed in 2018 with consecutive serial numbers withdrawn from circulation), it would multiply the money a hundredfold and cause a ‘rain of money’,” Singh said.
Our investigation team recovered Rs 18 lakh worth Rs 2,000 denomination notes, he added.
"All the accused provided information about the person who tampered with the serial numbers, note series, and printed year on the notes as per their requests. The individual was traced and apprehended from his residence in Yeshwanthpur on the same day. From his possession, Rs 2,000 denomination notes and equipment used for tampering with the note details were seized,” police said.
On November 3, all 10 accused involved in the case were produced in a court, which remanded them to judicial custody, police said, adding that a woman involved in the crime is still absconding, and efforts are on to trace her.
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Sangh Parivar still afraid of Mahatma Gandhi: Kerala CM
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi on his 78th death anniversary and claimed that the Sangh Parivar was still afraid of him and his memory and that is why his name was removed from the rural employment guarantee scheme.
Vijayan, in a Facebook post, said that Gandhi was killed because of his uncompromising stance on secularism and his vision of a pluralistic India that embraces diversity and disagreement.
He claimed that the Sangh Parivar was afraid of the memory of the Father of the Nation and hence his name was removed from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
"Why are they still afraid of Gandhiji? The answer is simple. Gandhiji's life and vision are the exact opposite of the politics of hatred and alienation envisioned by the Sangh Parivar," the CM contended.
He further claimed that the Sangh Parivar was trying to remove Gandhi from the lives of the ordinary people.
Vijayan said that unity in diversity was "the foundation stone of the Indian Republic" and everyone should be committed to protecting it from the "totalitarian tendencies that suppress dissent".
He claimed that there were certain forces which were trying to "rewrite history and elevate communal murderers as heroes" in order to lead the country towards totalitarianism.
The Marxist veteran said that Gandhi was "not assassinated by a man named Godse, but by an embodiment of the politics of hatred promoted by the Sangh Parivar" which is still trying to attack and destroy the Constitution and the democratic values of the country.
He said that Gandhi's martyrdom was a constant call for the anti-communal struggle.
Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan too claimed that the Sangh Parivar was afraid of Gandhi.
In his message on Facebook paying tribute to the Father of the Nation, Satheesan said that Sangh Parivar was even afraid of the memories of Gandhi and that is why they were "erasing books and writings" to hide things from people.
He too said that the assassin of Gandhi was not just a man, but an ideology.
Satheesan said that even though the Sangh Parivar shot him down, Gandhi still lives on after his death.
Gandhi, the most prominent face of India's freedom movement, was assassinated by Nathuram Godse on this day in 1948.
