12-day remand for 3 accused

VADODARA: Three persons from West Bengal, who were arrested by special operations group (SOG) here on Saturday with fake currency notes, have been remanded in police custody for 12 days by a local court. Jinatali Shanullah, Jalaludin Abuzerali and Jinatali Yusuf were arrested from Mangal Bazaar area of the city with fake notes having a face value of Rs 2.80 lakh.
"The remand was sought to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter. We will be tracing the location of the place where the notes were printed. We are also trying to find other people and agents who had helped the accused in reaching the city," said SOG police inspector M P Bhojani.
He added that the police will also be investigating if the trio had been in the city before to peddle fake notes or similar offences registered against them in the past.
"As a part of our investigation, we will also be sending a team of five officers from the SOG to Malda in West Bengal," said Bhojani.
The trio was staying in a rented house in Mangal Bazaar.
Their modus operandi was to buy household items from small vendors and transact fake notes in exchange for them. The police recovered 231 fake currency notes of Rs 1,000 denomination and 99 notes of Rs 500 denomination from the accused.
Cash amounting to Rs 7,450 and three mobile phones worth Rs 1,500 were also seized from the trio.
This is the second incident where fake currency note peddlers from Malda district of West Bengal were arrested in the city in the last two months. On August 15, Mazrul Razak, Khairul Abid Pathan and Inulhuq Hussain, who are natives of Malda district West Bengal, were arrested by the police after they were found carrying 43 fake currency notes of Rs 1,000 denomination.