Noida: Three thugs who allegedly duped small firms and NGOs have been arrested by the police in Greater Noida and fake currency notes worth Rs 8.30 crore have been seized from them, officials said Monday.
The accused, part of a gang being operated by kingpin based in Lucknow, were on their way from Delhi to the Uttar Pradesh capital Sunday, a senior official said.
They were arrested late last night as the local Dankaur police station officials found them along a highway during a patrol duty after the vehicle of the accused had broken down, Additional DCP (Greater Noida) Ashok Kumar said.
“Two of the accused first intercepted by the police near Salarpur underpass and upon enquiry they said their third partner was also around. When all three were taken into custody, they admitted to being part of a gang that used fake currency notes to dupe small companies and non government organisations,” Kumar told reporters.
“The accused carried genuine notes also with them but they used those along with the fake notes to dupe their targets by assuring big investments in their entities in exchange for a 10 per cent commission which they sought in advance,” he said.
The gang members used the genuine notes on the top and the bottom of the currency wads and showed several bundles of money to their targets in order to convince them of immediate investment, he said.
During the investigation, they also revealed that their kingpin is based in Lucknow and police teams are already working to arrest him, the additional DCP said.
The police identified those arrested as Vishal Chauhan, Mobin Khan and Upendra Singh. Chauhan is a resident of Delhi while Khan is from Shahjahanpur district and Singh is from Agra.
The police said they have seized a total of Rs 2.34 lakh in cash notes from the accused and also recovered fake currencies with the face value of Rs 8.30 crore — all in the denomination of Rs 500 — from the gang.
An FIR has been registered at the Dankaur police station under Indian Penal Code sections 420 for cheating and 120 B for criminal conspiracy, the police said, adding that further legal proceedings in the case are underway.
PTI
