Four held with fake Australian currency in Gujarat

Ahmedabad, Nov 28 (PTI) The Gujarat police have arrested four persons with 151 fake Australian currency notes that they planned to exchange for Indian rupees, said an official on Thursday.

    The mastermind of the racket, Maulik Patel (36), is settled in Australia and runs a business there. After suffering losses, he came up with the idea of printing Australian dollars here, said a senior official of the Ahmedabad police’s Special Operation Group (SOG).
    Police identified the other accused as Dhruv Desai (20), Khush Patel (24) and Ronak Rathod (24).
    The racket was exposed after police learnt that Rathod was selling Australian currency at Rs 40 per dollar while the market exchange rate is Rs 54 for each dollar, said Deputy Commissioner of Police, SOG, Jayrajsinh Vala.

    Police kept a watch on Rathod and nabbed him with 131 fake currency notes, each having a face value of 50 Australian dollars. After his questioning, they raided an apartment in the city’s Vatva area and arrested three others with 20 fake notes of the same denomination, said Vala.

    Police recovered a large printer, white plastic sheets, a laptop and a computer being used to print the fake notes, he said.

    Inspector MS Trivedi, who led the raiding team, said Maulik Patel is a native of the state's Patan district and went to Australia with his family nearly 20 years ago.

    “He got the Australian citizenship in 2012. He is in the transport business there but incurred huge losses. He then planned to print fake dollars here. He came to India on a tourist visa two months ago and roped in Dhruv Desai for the illegal work,” said Trivedi.

    The duo purchased plastic sheets matching the material used to make notes in Australia and started printing fake notes in Ahmedabad, said Vala.

    “After printing notes, they gave those to Khush for sale, offering a 5 per cent commission. Khush then passed on the notes to Rathod, who was eventually caught while trying to sell the currency at Rs 40 per dollar, much less than the market rate,” said Vala.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)