Mumbai: The city Crime Branch arrested on Sunday a flyer from Dubai with "high quality" fake currency notes of face value of Rs 23.86 lakh.
The passenger, identified as Javed Gulamnabi Shaikh, 36, was apprehended at Mumbai international airport.
Speaking about the seizure, the Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Crime Branch, Santosh Rastogi, said, "The accused has said in his interrogation that the consignment was routed from Pakistan via Dubai and looking at their quality, terror link cannot be ruled out," he said.
According to an officer," The Crime Branch Unit 8 had received information from central agencies that a flyer from Dubai would be carrying a huge consignment of fake currency; acting on the tip-off, the crime branch team laid a trap and apprehended Shaikh from a bus stop at Mumbai International airport.
During the search operation, it was found that he was carrying 1,193 high quality notes of Rs 2000 denomination with face value of Rs 23.86 lakh. The notes were neatly stacked in his travel bag to avoid suspicion.
During interrogation, Shaikh, a resident of Kalwa, told officers that he had gone to Dubai to meet his brothers a few days ago; he further informed that the notes were routed from Pakistan and he had received them in Dubai.
"The notes are of a very good quality and for an untrained eye it is very difficult to distinguish them from real ones," said an officer.
"Only two features in the seized note are missing: one, in the original, the green strip changes colour to blue when the note is tilted, but in these notes the strip remains green. Also, in the original note, the face value can be seen only when the note is held against the light; this feature was also found to be missing," he added.
According to the crime branch officer, "Shaikh was has been arrested on the charge of possessing counterfeit currency and criminal conspiracy under relevant sections of the IPC; he will be produced in the court on Monday.
"We are trying to ascertain from where the currency originated, who was the recipient and the purpose behind the delivery," said a crime branch officer.
