Odisha: 3 held for exchanging fake currency notes with real ones

Bhubaneswar: The Twin City Commissionerate Police have busted a fake currency note racket, the members of which allegedly used to dupe people by exchanging fake currency notes with real ones.

As many as three persons have been arrested in this connection. The accused have been identified as Pravat Sahoo of Bhadrak, Pradip Maiti of West Bengal and Rajendra Das of Jajpur who is a resident of Budheswari Colony here. Cops have seized Rs 7 lakh from their possession.

According to police sources, the three had approached Rohit Verma of Ranchi for exchanging their counterfeit currency notes. They lured Rohit with an offer of giving him Rs 10 lakh in exchange of Rs 5 lakh.

Couple of days ago, Rohit arrived in Bhubaneswar with the cash and reached Rajendra’s residence in the city, where the trio was present. The accused received Rs 5 lakh from him and gave him an amount, which they claimed to be Rs 10 lakh. When Rohit started counting the cash, many paper sheets equal to the dimensions of the notes were found stacked between the notes.

On being informed, Laxmi Sagar police reached the spot and arrested Rajendra and Pradip, while Pravat was apprehended today.

“The trio used to contact various persons for exchanging the fake currency notes. They also approached people for giving them gold bars at cheaper rates. We have seized such bars from their possession, which have been found to be fake,” said Bhubaneswar DCP Anup Kumar Sahoo.