Mumbai: Kerala connections in a racket of fake currency printing are investigated by Mumbai Police, while two arrested with Rs 500 notes over value of Rs 2.95 lakh.
The notes were busted in Navi Mumbai and Police say one among the arrested detained in Idukki for printing 500 rupees notes.
The arrested are Vishnu Vijayan of Pondikolam in Thiruvananthapuram and Don Verkey, a former shipping company employee of Idukki. Police have also detained for investigation one Leo George in Idukki. Prima facie he is suspected to be the kingpin of the racket which may have its tentacles in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Mumbai Crime Branch Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan told.
Reports says Vijayan is an electronics engineer, Verkey invested Rs 10 lakh to buy a workshop and a press to print the fake notes. George is suspected to be involved in a similar case and arrested by Police in July 2018, along with an actress.
Police sources further said that George is believed to be involved in a similar FICN printing case and arrested by the Kerala Police in July 2018 and seized Rs 57 Lakhs, along with an actress and her relatives.
The Crime Branch team recovered nearly 600 fake notes of Rs 500 denomination and were stunned to see watermark on the fake notes was strikingly similar.The team raided the Navi Mumbai printing press and recovered printers, laptop, high quality GSM paper, a metal scale bearing a stamp of the Reserve Bank of India, which is suspected to have been stolen, weighing instruments, and heat-resistant packet in which the printed fake notes were placed and ironed to give a crispy new note feel to the FICN.
