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The city crime branch arrested five persons from different locations in Gujarat and seized from them fake currency notes with a face value of over Rs. 1 crore before they could circulate the money in the entire market, The Indian Express reported.
The accused arrested have been identified as Pratik Chodvadiya, Radharaman Swami, a priest at a temple at Ambav in Kheda, Pravin Chopra and Kanu Chopra, both residents of Kamrej in Surat, and Mohan Madhav of Ankleshwar.
Gujarat: Crime Branch arrested five people and seized Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) worth over Rs 1 crore from their possession in Surat. (24.11) pic.twitter.com/YMYgEy4WSy
— ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2019
The action by the Surat crime branch was based on a tip-off and a total of 5,013 fake notes of Rs. 2000 denomination with a face value of Rs. 10,026,000 were seized during the operation. The Surat crime branch team raided an under-construction ‘Swami Narayan’ temple at Ambav village in Kheda on Sunday and arrested Radharaman Swami where fake notes and a printing machine were seized from his possession.
“A police team arrested Radharaman Swami from the temple and seized 2,500 fake notes of Rs 2,000 denomination worth Rs 50 lakh, along with printing material. The other three accused were arrested near Shyam Dham temple on the Surat Kamrej highway and 2,310 fake notes worth Rs 46.2 lakh were seized from them,” said RR Sarvaiya, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Surat.
The first person to be arrested was Chodvadiya (19) from near Lake Village farm in Kamrej on Sunday morning with 203 fake notes worth Rs. 406,000 after which he told other members of the gang.
“Based on reliable information, the Crime Branch arrested Prateek Dilipbhai Chodvadiya and recovered fake currency notes with face value of Rs. 4 lakh. During interrogation, Chodvadiya revealed that he, along with some others, had printed fake currency notes with face value of Rs. 1 crore”, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Rahul Patel said.
Three others- Pravin Chopda, Kalu Chopda and Mohan were arrested from Sarthana in Surat district with fake currency with face value of Rs. 19 lakh, Rs. 15 lakh and Rs. 12 lakh, the police said.
The police have booked them under Sections 489 (counterfeiting currency notes), 120 (b) (conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons towards common intent) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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