A 26 year old class nine drop out who had a fight with his parents three months ago, left home and started staying separately and earned money by printing fake notes, learning the trick from You Tube. The accused identified as Praful Govind Patil, used a photocopy machine, cotton paper, cutter, sparkle cello tape and an iron box to produce fake notes. Acting on a tip off, the officials from Central unit of Crime Branch had raided a house in Tondare village of Taloja area and arrested Patil after finding fake notes of RS 2.03 lakh and the materials that he used to print the same.
“The accused sold fake notes of RS 1 lakh at Rs 10,000 to people who came to him. In order to avoid getting caught, he made fake notes of lower denomination that included Rs 10, 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100,” senior police inspector Sunil Shinde from Central unit said. According to police, he did not have a big syndicate or agents to circulate the fake notes in the market and only the people who knew him, purchased the notes from him. “We are investigating further to know who were the buyers and what they did with the fake notes that they purchased,” assistant commissioner of police (crime branch) Ajay Landge said. The police seized 574 notes of denomination Rs 50, 33 notes of denomination Rs 100 and 856 notes of denomination Rs 200.
The accused had been printing these fake notes since last three months, said police. He had got the idea of doing this after he read about another similar case from Delhi wherein the men printed fake notes using simple set up. He looked for videos on youtube to understand how he could implement the idea and purchased the materials required. The accused used cotton papers to take photocopies of the notes. At the place of green security mark on the notes, the accused used the sparkle cello tape by cutting it thing using a cutter. The note was then pressed using an iron box. According to police, it is difficult for common man to identify the fake note but if one looks at it carefully, it is easily distinguished. But usually, nobody checks a lower denomination notes.
The accused previously worked in a company that segregated electronic waste. After he got this idea, he resigned from the company. He has been arrested under the sections 489 A, 489 B, 489 C and 489 D of the IPC. The accused has been remanded to police custody till May 20.
