Afternoon news

• The police feel that this is an attempt to infiltrate and weaken the Indian economy

Mumbai, Sep 3: Five men were arrested by the police on charges of possessing fake currency. The Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police have arrested Akhtar Ali alias Papa (28) a resident of Qureshi Nagar in Kurla (E), Hussain Kanani Abdul Qadar (31), Rafik Babulal Shaikh (28) of Dongri, Raghvendra Satyanarayan alias Kunte (24) from Shimoga in Karnataka and Riyaz Hospet (38) from Bangalore for possessing fake currency.

During the arrest Akhtar Ali was found in possession of counterfeit currency notes amounting to Rs. 19,49,500. The police confirmed that the consignment consisted of 1,900 fake notes of the denomination of Rs. 500 and 999 fake notes of Rs. 1,000 denomination. The notes had been sent from Dubai.

The Crime Branch claims the involvement of Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar in the consignment. The aim is to infiltrate and weaken the Indian economy. However the officials have avoided naming Pakistan’s intelligence agency the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

Joint commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said, “In or investigations we have found the direct involvement of Aftab Batki and Haji Tala. Batki is wanted in many cases while Haji is wanted by Unit-9 for a case filed a day ago. We are now further investigating the involvement of other big names in the racket.”

“Aftab Batki handles the fake currency racket of the Dawood gang. Haji Tala is the right hand man of Batki. In addition to this another person K. M. Abdullah, who is also a part of the racket is already in the custody of the Crime Branch. The contraband came through Aftab Batki who passed the money to Haji Tala, which was seized on Wednesday by Unit 9. Noor Mohammed Laundrywalla then delivered this amount to a labour who was travelling to India from Dubai.”

“Laundrywalla found out labour who were travelling to India and lured them to carry his packages. They would then deliver the package to a person identified as Chandu in Bombay. Chandu received the packet and delivered it to Akhtar Ali. Later on he distributed the money to Riyaz Hospet in Karnataka and Hussain Kanani Abdul Qadar in Bombay. Akhtar Ali charged twenty percent of the value of the currency. Ali and the other accused were arrested when they met to deliver the currency for further distribution,” the officer added.

“All the accused are booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for counterfeiting currency notes and Section 120 (B) for criminal conspiracy. The quality of these counterfeit notes is very advanced,” Maria added.