The city police claim to have busted an international racket in counterfeiting currency and sale of illegal weapons with the arrest of nine people. Police have recovered fake notes with a face value of Rs 40 lakh, three sten machine carbines, six revolvers and 60 live rounds of ammunition from the arrested. The seized ammunition includes 40 rounds of 0.22 mm bullets and 20 of 9 mm bullets. The fake notes seized includes 7,600 notes of Rs 500 face value and 200 notes of Rs 1,000 face value.
Police said they had received information that a group had come to the city from the India-Bangladesh border and were trying to sell weapons in the city. “A team headed by the Joint Commissioner (Crime) tracked the movement of the gang and finally nabbed them from a lodge”, said Police Commissioner B.G. Jyothiprakash Mirji.
Without giving out much details, the police chief hinted that the gang also had strong international links. On whether these involved ISI connections, he said investigations are on and details will emerge later. The arrested have been identified as Rehman (32), Jeevan Paramneet (26), Santu Singh (21), Ranjith (26), Pradeep (28), Vasith (26), all natives of Malda district in West Bengal. The other arrested are Balu (34) of Bengaluru and Sambashiva (35), and Mohan (34) of Dharmavaram district in Tamil Nadu.
“The accused revealed that they have a network in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for circulation of fake notes. If their arrest was delayed, there were chances that they would have circulated the notes”, Mr Mirji said. Referring to the arms and ammunition recovered, Mr Mirji said, "The weapons look like they are foreign-made. However, ballistic experts will examine them and confirm this. But we believe the gang has a large network, hence we have sent special teams to the India-Bangladesh border areas to nab the other accused in the racket." A case has been registered in Sampangirama Nagar station.