Summary:
Ahmedabad, May 23 (PTI) The city crime branch has busted a fake currency notes with the seizure of 98 counterfeit notes of Rs 2,000 denomination with a face value of Rs 1.96 lakh, and arrested one person in this connection, officials said on Monday.
There is a possibility of these notes having originated from Pakistan, he claimed.
The accused, identified as Dilip Keshwala, a computer engineering student, received fake notes through a courier and used them to buy mobile phones, gold and other items, they said.
The crime branch sleuths seized 56 fake notes from Keshwala and 42 from a bank where they were deposited by a shopkeeper who had received them assuming the notes to be genuine, an official said.
These items were sold and the money collected was then sent to the network through a courier service.
The money receiver would in-turn send it to the main accused in Bitcoins, the crime branch official said.
Keshwala got in touch with the network of people involved in the racket through an online portal while looking for a part-time job, he said.
"He was appointed as a service boy to whom the fake Indian currency notes were dispatched through a courier via an online portal," the official said. As directed, he would purchase different items using the fake notes that easily passed off as genuine ones.
In one instance, he bought 13 mobile phones from a shop and paid Rs 84,000 in fake notes.
The shopkeeper deposited the money in the Bank of India, the official said.
The items purchased using fake notes were sold and the money collected was sent via an "angadia" agency (a courier service to send money) named "EDS Satellite", he said.
The person receiving the money through the "angadia" would in-turn send it to the main accused in Bitcoins, the official said.
Keshwala was arrested based on a tip-off.
During questioning, he told the police that he had purchased 13 mobile phones from a shop and paid Rs 84,000 in fake notes.
When the shop owner was contacted, he said he had deposited the notes in the Bank of India, the official said.
"As many as 42 fakes notes of Rs 2,000-denomination were seized from the bank.