Police detain 8 with Tk 5.2 million worth fake notes in Dhaka

The Detective Branch of police has detained eight members of a currency counterfeiting ring with fake notes worth Tk 5.2 million in Dhaka.

They were held during raids on two buildings in the city's Paltan and Kotwali areas between Thursday afternoon and early Friday, said DMP Additional Deputy Commissioner Md Yusuf Ali.

Those detained are Md Rezaul Islam Munna, Md Abdul Qader alias Opu, Md Latif 25, Md Fazar Ali, Md Moharam Mia, Sumi Begum, Md Abdul Barek and Md Saddam.

At a press briefing on Friday, Additional Commissioner and DMP's counter-terrorism unit chief Md Monirul Islam said that Rs 8,000 fake Indian rupees were also recovered from the group.

"Rezaul is the ringleader of the gang. During preliminary questioning, he told police that they planned to circulate the fake notes through cattle markets ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha," Monirul said.

He said that the group had been selling Tk 100,000 fake notes for Tk 8,000.

He said that fake note peddling groups had decreased due to increased policing but a couple of groups like this one are still active sometimes. "We are trying to catch them."

Monirul said that apart from the fake notes, some counterfeiting instruments were recovered from them.

He added that a case has been started against the eight arrestees with Paltan police.

The law enforcers have increased surveillance on these rackets ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, which may be observed in Bangladesh on Sep 12 or 13, depending on the sighting of the moon.

In past one month, police have arrested several people with a huge amount of fake notes in different places of the country, including Dhaka and Chittagong.

In line with a Bangladesh Bank directive, banks have also taken initiatives to install machines to detect fake currencies in the cattle markets.

Police arrest more

At the media call, Monirul Islam said they have also arrested 31 members of different gangs of muggers and snatchers, also known as 'Malam party' and 'Ogyan party', from various areas of the capital.

Twenty-one among them were sentence to different terms by mobile courts while the rest 10 were accused in a number of cases.

Police are always on the lookout for these gangs ahead of the two Eids every year when they become more active.