TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Panjim police on Monday claimed to have busted an inter-state counterfeit currency racket with the arrests of five persons, with one of them already behind the bars. The police believe the arrested rogues have their roots in Mumbai from where the racket is operating on a larger scale and could have circulated notes of about Rs 2 lakh since they landed here.
The four men identified as Yusuf Sheikh, Jinarul Haq, both aged 29 years; Munsub S K (27) and Abdur Rahim Sheikh (30), all hailing from West Bengal were caught with counterfeit Indian rupee notes amounting to Rs 29,000. They have been remanded to police custody for interrogation till January 17.
The arrests of the four came after nearly four days of their first gang member Tazmira Sheikh’s interrogation about their activity in the State. Tazmira was arrested on suspicion while she made purchases from three shops at Panjim market last week by paying in notes of Rs 1000.
“She disclosed that four of her gang members were staying at a Margao hotel. We conducted a search in the hotel room and found counterfeit notes in their possession. All are arrested,” said an officer.
The police suspect that the gang might have transacted fake notes amounting to at least Rs two lakh since they arrived in the State last week. Sources said police team could be sent to Mumbai to locate and identify the kingpin. “To become a member of this gang, a person has to deposit a certain amount (genuine currency) with the kingpin. They are then given more than double the amount of counterfeit notes to circulate in the market,” said the officer divulging the modus operandi.
