Garhwal Post Bureau
Haridwar, 12 Jul: Haridwar police have unearthed a fake currency racket with links to Punjab and have arrested two masterminds and also recovered counterfeit notes. In addition, the equipment used for production of fake currency has also been recovered by the Police. It may be recalled that, earlier, four members of the gang had been caught circulating fake notes in Haridwar, leading the investigators to Punjab where the remaining accused were apprehended.
On 6 July, Nagar Kotwali police had arrested Sarjeet Singh, Tinku, Sumit Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar while they were attempting to circulate counterfeit notes in Haridwar. A total amount of Rs 84,500 in fake Rs 500 notes denomination was seized from them. They had later been remanded to judicial custody. During the interrogation of Tinku and Sumit while on police custody remand, the names of two more accused had surfaced, prompting a police team to travel to Punjab.
On Friday, the police arrested 32-year-old Pawan Kumar, son of Mohinder Kumar of Gurdaspur, with Rs 5,000 in fake notes, and 52-year-old Sukhbir Singh, son of Tara Singh of Amritsar, with Rs 1 lakh in counterfeit notes near Bapu Da Dhaba on the Muddal bypass along the Pathankot highway. A printer and a car used in the racket were also seized. Investigations have revealed that Pawan, a dhaba operator, and Sukhbir, a cloth trader, were running the counterfeit currency business under the guise of their professions. They exchanged Rs 50,000 in genuine currency for Rs 1 lakh in fake notes to earn profit.
Sukhbir has previously also been jailed in 2020 for bank fraud and again in 2024 for possession of counterfeit currency in Batala, Punjab. At the same time, Pawan was imprisoned in 2022 under the NDPS Act. Their friendship in jail led to a fresh plan of printing fake notes for profit. They procured high-quality paper and used a printer to produce counterfeit notes, which they exposed to sunlight and dust to make them appear genuine in circulation.
SP City Abhay Singh has stated that with the arrest of these two masterminds, the total number of arrests in the case has risen to six. Both accused have been produced in court and sent to jail. The earlier arrests included 58-year-old Sarjeet Singh, 29-year-old Tinku, 20-year-old Sumit Kumar and 47-year-old Sanjeev Kumar, all of them being residents of Gurdaspur, Punjab. The police have claimed that the racket is well organised and is aimed at flooding the market with counterfeit notes, and at the same time asserted that a swift action by the Police has curtailed its operations.
