Dahod police quizzing master counterfeiter

Vadodara: Acquiring a skill to make extra money is a common piece of advice. One man learned such a skill that landed him behind bars. Hussain Peera decided to learn the fine art of counterfeiting currency notes, but the law eventually caught up with him.

Peera, 47, is from Karnataka. He was arrested in the Kamareddy district of Telangana in Dec. Peera, who has studied only till Class 8, got insights into making counterfeit currency notes and roped in several people from at least six states.

He made sure that people in different places learned how to make these high-quality counterfeits, and would even finance their operations.

Peera had made losses in business and was in debt. He moved to Mumbai hoping to make some money, but ended up learning how to make money in fake currency notes. He met a man from Madhya Pradesh who told him about a fake currency notes racket. Peera met the counterfeiters and learned how to make the notes.

Peera would peddle the fake notes in rural areas where it was easy to pass them as genuine, until Kamareddy police seized a stock of notes during a regular vehicle checking operation. Peera and others were arrested. He was put behind bars in Dec. By this time, it came to light that the gang had spread its tentacles to Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Maharashtra too.

While Peera and his aides were in prison, those who learned to make the notes from them remained in business in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Banswara police in Rajasthan unearthed a fake currency notes racket last month and Peera's name cropped up in the investigation.

As Banswara police arrested some persons from Dahod and even seized printing material from there, Dahod police also swung into action and found out about persons from the district involved in a similar racket. This racket also led Dahod police to Peera, who was recently brought to Dahod to be questioned.

"The notes are not as good as the counterfeits brought in from across borders, but are much better than run-of-the-mill printouts of scanned images of notes," a source said.

What surprised police was the quality of the paper used and the imprint of the security ribbon. This ribbon was printed separately to ensure it was not detected easily. The accused also identified paper grades that were closest to real currency notes. They told those working with them to get paper only of the grade they specified.

Dahod police are digging into details of the quality of paper and the imprint of the ribbon. Peera was taken into Dahod police custody and is being questioned in this regard. Sources said more members of the gang, including some from other states, are likely to be arrested.