Pakistani citizen carrying fake Rs 500 notes arrested from Surat

A Pakistani citizen was arrested on Wednesday and fake currency notes of scrapped Rs 500 with a face value of Rs 50,000 were seized from him at Surat Railway station, police said.

According to police, the accused, identified as Burhanuddin Sajjad (45), had entered India on a valid tourist visa and had obtained the fake notes from Pakistan.

Police seized 100 fake notes of old Rs 500 denomination from Burhanuddin, who first claimed to be a Mumbai resident, when he was apprehended at Surat Railway station in the morning by Railway Protection Force (RPF).

He was later handed over to Government Railway Police (GRP) for further investigation.

"Later, during his primary questioning and frisking, police recovered his Pakistani passport, which confirmed his nationality," Western Railway superintendent of police (SP), Vadodara division, Sharad Singhal, said.

"Burhanuddin's passport confirmed that he is a Pakistani national and not a resident of Mumbai. Stamps on his passport suggested that he entered India via Attari border in Punjab on December 12 and then headed to Mumbai by a train. We recovered 100 fake notes of old Rs 500 currency. We also found three notes of 100 dollar with him," Singhal said.

"Burhanuddin came to India on a valid tourist visa, which has not expired. He told us that he had acquired these fake notes from Pakistan. We will seek his remand from court to investigate his intentions to visit India with such fake notes," said Singhal.

"RPF jawans spotted Burhanuddin loitering suspiciously on platform number one of Surat railway station while traveling to Mumbai," Surat GRP Sub Inspector M R Malek said.

"When RPF jawans searched his luggage, they found 100 bills of now defunct Rs 500 currency notes. When checked by the ticket counter staff, these notes turned out to be fake," he said.

Meanwhile, Kutch district police nabbed two persons with 119 fake currency of new Rs 500 notes, which they had allegedly printed at their office in Madhapar village on the outskirts of Bhuj town and intended to circulate in the market.

Based on a tip off, Local Crime Branch (LCB) raided the office of 'Rutvi Group of Companies' at Madhapar late last night and busted a racket of printing fake currency of new Rs 500 notes, a release by Kutch-West LCB said.

While searching the office, police found 119 fake notes of Rs 500 having total face value of Rs 59,500. The arrested accused were identified as Chirag Chauhan and Bachubha Jadeja, both residents of Bhuj. Investigation revealed that the duo had printed these notes using a colour printer at their office and wanted to circulate these notes, the release said.