Fake currency makers active ahead of Eid

Detectives during separate drives in the capital on Thursday arrested eight members of a gang of currency counterfeiters and seized from them fake notes of Tk 52 lakh and Indian Rs 8,000.

Police during a raid in Paltan area arrested Mohammad Saddam, 23, Barek, 25, Sumi Begum, 20, and Mohorrom Miah, 38, for possession of fake Bangladeshi and Indian currencies. 

After gleaning information from the four, police later conducted another drive in Kotowali area and picked up four more -- gang leader Rezaul Karim alias Munna, 26, Abdul Kader alias Opu, 28, Latif, 25, and Fazar Ali, 29. Sohel, the fifth member of the gang, managed to flee.

Monirul Islam, additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), during a press briefing at the DMP Media Centre yesterday said the arrestees admitted that they were trying to sell the counterfeit currencies.

The equipment confiscated from the criminals included a notebook computer, a printer, ink cartridges, wooden frames, plastic jars and 450 pieces of blank paper sheets.

The price of the equipment alone would be around Tk 50 lakh, Monirul also said.

The arrestees are professional counterfeiters and they admitted to have been involved in the crime for around seven to eight years, he said, adding that the gang usually fabricated and delivered counterfeit currencies from a flat they rented in the capital for a short period of time.

The gang operated within a syndicate that had different tiers of members, including females, with each tier having specific function and these criminals became especially active ahead of Eid, Monirul explained.

On Wednesday, detectives arrested two counterfeiters -- Alam Miah and Alamgir -- from Lalbagh area in the capital and recovered counterfeit notes of Tk 63.77 lakh from their possession.