The Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Police has claimed to have unearthed a well-knit racket in counterfeit currency notes while making a seizure of Rs 41.16 lakh value fake notes.
The fake notes were seized after raids near Ulunda in Sonepur district. The accused Deepak Meher, a native of Ulunda, was arrested and remanded to judicial custody under IPC Sections 489-A/489-B/489-C and 120(B).
The seized fake Indian currency notes will be sent to the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited in Mudrana Nagar in Pachima Midnapore of West Bengal for examination and opinion. Seized FICN are of high quality or not is decided by the notified forensic authorities like Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited.
The seized fake notes are of the denominations of Rs 500 and meet many security features of a genuine note.
The STF will add UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) sections after getting an official forensic report as to whether these notes are of high quality or not.
It is suspected that these notes were brought from Chhattisgarh. There are more criminals involved in this racket. STF has got the vital clues and is working on it to crack the entire scam and arrest all the perpetrators.
“STF is investigating all angles as there is likelihood of their complicity with a bigger racket based outside the state. We are looking into all possible angles to ascertain the accused person’s possible link with subversive and anti-national elements,” said Deputy Inspector General of Police, STF, Jay Narayan Pankaj.
Till date, the STF has seized fake notes of face value more than Rs 1.19 crore including the latest seizure. However, earlier notes were of low quality. In fact in recent years, all FICN seized in Odisha was of low quality.