Rs 25-lakh Pak made currencies seized

In a large-scale seizure of Pakistan-manufactured Indian currencies after one-and-a-half years in Kerala, sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Thursday morning took into custody counterfeit currencies aggregating Rs 24,18,000 at the Kochi International Airport at Nedumbassery. Pak-made currencies aggregating Rs 150,000 had been seized at the Kozhikode International Airport in Karippur almost one-and-a-half years ago.

The DRI officials took into custody Gopinath, a native of Mavelikkara, Alappuzha, who had brought the bag containing the counterfeit currencies of denominations of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 on board an Emirate flight from Dubai. The officials conducted a search for the two persons from Kozhikode who were supposed to receive the bag outside the airport, but they managed to escape.

Gopinath, who was in Dubai Prison for about a week in connection with labour/Visa problem, was dropped at the Dubai Airport directly from the jail for deporting him to Kochi. He told the DRI team led by Superintendent V Saithumuhammed, that a person claiming to be a friend of one Rafi of Kozhikode had requested him to hand over a bag to a person waiting at Kochi Airport.

He told the officials that the person who gave him the bag had said it contained toys for children. He said he had been instructed to hand over the bag to two persons from Kozhikode who would meet him outside the airport. Gopinath was later produced before the Economic Offence Court in Kochi, which remanded him in custody for 14 days.

Saithumuhammed said the fake currency racket was being operated by persons sitting in Gulf countries. He said the DRI had got some clues about these persons but there were no detailed available based on which formal action could be taken.

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