Web series 'Farzi'-inspired fake currency racket busted, 5 held
Noida (PTI): Noida Police on Tuesday said it has busted a fake currency racket here with the arrest of five people and seized counterfeit notes of the face value of around Rs 6.50 lakh ahead of local body polls in Uttar Pradesh.
According to police, the gang members were inspired by the popular web series 'Farzi' and used Instagram to connect with their network spread across Delhi-NCR, and parts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Additional DCP (Noida) Shakti Avasthy said the arrest has been made by officials of Sector 24 police station and the recovered banknotes include forged notes of denominations 2000, 500 and 200.
"The five people arrested are Faiz Khan, Shibu Khan, Aditya Gupta, Ayush Gupta and Hari Om Atri. They had a chain of network to supply fake notes. They got double the number of fake notes like Rs 200 in fake notes for Rs 100 real currency and the profit margin increased up to four times as one went higher up in the supply chain," Avasthy told reporters.
"Three men were wanted in connection with the case. One of them has been identified as 'Singhania', who lives in Chhapra district of Bihar, and printed these notes, the other is 'Bhola', who stays in Delhi and the third goes by the name of 'Mobin' in Lucknow," the officer said.
The police said the accused used WhatsApp with virtual phone numbers to evade tracking.
"They also used Instagram for networking and made reels related to fake currencies. They got in touch with their clients through comments on YouTube videos. They were also inspired by a web series which was released two to three months ago," Avasthy said.
Of those held, Shibu had been working in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, while Faiz was in Kuwait until recently, the police said. The police said the fake notes were being procured from "Singhania" in Bihar and "Bhola" in Delhi. Both of them were printing the fake notes, police said.
The main accused, Faiz Khan, lived in Kuwait and ran his business in Bihar, Lucknow, Noida, Jaipur and the Delhi NCR region, police officials said.
An FIR has been lodged under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating) and provisions pertaining to counterfeit Indian currency notes, they added.
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J-K: Six held with drugs, assets worth Rs 73 lakh attached in Udhampur
Jammu (PTI): Six persons were taken into custody during an intensified anti-narcotics crackdown, with police recovering contraband substances and over Rs 23 lakh in Doda and Kathua districts of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Monday.
In a parallel action, properties worth over Rs 73 lakh linked to drug peddlers were also attached in Udhampur district under relevant legal provisions, the police said.
Additional Superintendent of Police, Doda, Mohd Aslam said three persons, including a woman, were detained during a raid on a house at Dak Mohalla in the main town following recovery of 85 grams of suspected brown sugar and over Rs 23 lakh on Sunday evening.
He identified the woman as Zareena Begum, stating that she had been under police surveillance following inputs indicating her involvement in drug peddling.
Besides Zareena, officials said her daughter and son-in-law were also picked up by police during the raid.
“We have taken three individuals into custody. Their roles are being examined, and based on that, arrests will be made. We are continuing raids at other suspected locations,” Aslam said.
Three drug peddlers --Pardeep Singh of Hiranagar, Rahees Butt of Billawar and Ali Sen of Amritsar (Punjab) -- were arrested along with heroin at different places in Kathua district, a police spokesman said.
He said while 2.79 gm of heroin was seized from Singh, 2.66 gm were recovered Butt. Similarly, 303 gm of heroin was seized from Sen who was intercepted near Berrian-Pattan village while moving in a private car from Bhagthali to Maggar Khad on the Jammu-Pathankot highway.
All the three were booked under the NDPS Act and further investigations are on, the spokesman said.
In Udhampur, the spokesman said properties worth Rs 73 lakh were attached in two separate cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The attached properties included a newly constructed residential house, a car, a motorcycle and a mobile phone with a total value of Rs 65 Lakh, belonging to accused Saif Ali who was booked under the NDPS case in Majalta area early this year, he said.
In another action, movable property worth Rs 8 lakh comprising a car, belonging to accused Danish Butt of Doda has been attached under Section 68(F) NDPS Act in connection with an FIR registered at Rehambal police station, the spokesman said.
