New Delhi

An interstate cartel that dealt with Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) taking inspiration from the webseries ‘Farzi’ starring Shahid Kapoor, was busted by the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch on Friday, which also arrested its five members.

The arrested were identified as Sakoor Mohammad (25), who was the kingpin of the cartel, Lokesh Yadav (28), Himanshu Jain (47), Shiv Lal (30) and Sanjay Godara (22), all residents of Rajasthan.

Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said that surveillance was mounted upon the activities of the suspected members of a syndicate involved in counterfeit currency.  Specific input was received regarding two criminals named Sakoor and Lokesh who are involved in the circulation of FICN would come to the area near the Akshardham Temple to deliver a consignment to a prospective receiver, he said. Accordingly, a trap was laid and the two were arrested.

During their search, high quality FICN equivalent to Rs 6 lakhs in the denomination of Rs 500 were recovered from their possession.

Upon interrogation, the accused disclosed that they had received the recovered FICN for circulation from their associates Himanshu Jain, Shiv Lal and his brother Sanjay.

It was also revealed that the accused persons Radhey, Sakoor and Shiv Lal had conspired to establish a setup for printing FICN in Ajmer with the aim of earning a substantial profit. Subsequently, they operated a nexus or syndicate engaged in printing FICN at a rented house in Ajmer and circulating the counterfeit currency to various customers in Delhi-NCR, said the Special CP.