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New Delhi
'Pak. hand in fake Indian currency racket'
By Devesh K. Pandey
NEW DELHI, DEC. 5. A Pakistan Embassy official in Nepal has allegedly been found involved in pushing counterfeit Indian currency across the border through a gang selling cars stolen from Delhi. Five men have been arrested and intelligence agencies alerted.
The five have been identified as Rajbir and Sanjay Punjabi, both alleged auto-lifters, besides Surender Singhal, Vinod Mittal and Anil Jain who allegedly worked as international agents dealing in fake Indian currency. Anil Jain is a practising lawyer at the Tis Hazari courts in Delhi.
The collapse of the whole network came as a surprise to the police team which was trailing auto-lifters in North Delhi. ``There was considerable increase in auto thefts this year which baffled the police,'' said the Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), Mr. Sanjay Baniwal, here today. Following a tip-off that some criminals from Najafgarh and Sonipat in Haryana were involved in car-lifting, Inspector L.C. Yadav of the Pratap Nagar police station nabbed Surender, a resident of Nepal, and Rajbir near a police picket at Sarai Rohilla while they were driving in a stolen Indica car. A briefcase containing fake currency worth Rs. 62,500 wrapped in five packets, with 25 notes of Rs. 500 denomination each, was recovered from them.
``The currency notes are of very high quality and difficult to distinguish from real ones,'' said Mr. Baniwal.
uring interrogation, the duo purportedly revealed that auto-lifters were getting huge amounts in fake currency from their Nepalese contacts against stolen cars for circulation in India. While an Indica car normally fetches Rs. 50,000 in the grey market, they were paid nearly Rs. 2 lakhs in fake currency. Surender claimed that his Nepalese contacts used to get from a Pakistan Embassy official in Kathmandu Rs. 1 lakh in fake currency in lieu of Rs. 25,000 in genuine currency. It is learnt that the official is of a second secretary rank.
he other three accused were arrested subsequently at the instance of Surinder and Rajbir.
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