Fake coin racket busted, 5 held

HYDERABAD: A five-member gang involved in manufacturing and circulating counterfeit Indian five rupee coins was busted by the commissioner's Task Force sleuths on Friday. The Task Force sleuths also seized fake five rupee coins, manufacturing equipment, raw material and Rs 1.41 lakh from their possession.
According to deputy commissioner of police Task Force VB Kamalasan Reddy, the arrested, include Mohd Arshad Jalal Ahmed Ansari alias Arshad, 27, who is working as operation controller, Emirate Airlines, Dubai, and is a resident of Sharjah and native of Mumbai, Mohd Mehraj, 44, a taxi driver, Mohd Faraz, 28, Mohd Haji, 27, all from Falaknuma and Mohd Majeed, 26, a resident of Wattepally.
The police said prime accused Mohd Arshad Jalal, who worked as a supervisor in Dubai Airport from 2003 to 2010, was arrested by Dubai police on charge of forging bank accounts and was jailed for nine months. After that, he lost his job and when his visa got cancelled in August 2010, he came to Mumbai to sell his flat. During one of his visits to Hyderabad, he came in contact with Mehraj.
Mehraj arranged a flat for rent for Arshad who in due course, expressed his wish to establish a manufacturing unit of fake five rupee coins in Hyderabad and sought his help to get other workers. Eventually, Mehraj contacted his friends Faraz, Haji and Majeed. Arshad promised to pay them a huge amount and provide them jobs in Dubai. He gave Rs 25,000 to each of them as advance and promised to pay them Rs 10,000 per month.
As per their plan, Arshad along with Mehraj went to Moradabad, UP, and purchased the machinery to start his fake unit. They rented a house in Bandlaguda, Chandrayangutta, and started works in January, 2011. Everyday they used to manufacture 700-800 coins. They worked for one month and manufactured about 30,000 fake five rupee coins. Arshad and Mehraj circulated the fake coins in bulk to supermarkets, sweet shops located in Road No.12, Banjara Hills and Tolichowki area.
In February, they shifted the manufacturing unit to Mehraj's house at Mustafanagar, Falaknuma, the police said. They were preparing 200 five rupee counterfeit coins for every 1 kg brass, the police added.
The gang used to earn a profit of Rs 3 per fake coin.
The accused were handed over to Falaknuma police for further investigation and action, the DCP said.