The Delhi Police Special Cell has arrested another gang member of the international Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) cartel from Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana. The accused, Irshad, was apprehended with around 2.5 lakhs of FICN, and investigations are still underway to track down more members of the gang. The arrest was made following leads provided by a Bulgarian national, Ruslan Petrov Metodiev, who was arrested earlier this week.
Metodiev, a permanent resident of Sofia, Bulgaria, was arrested by the police on June 21 in Gurugram. The police team recovered high-quality FICN, amounting to Rs. Eight Lakhs, from the accused along with cash of Rs. 1,89,000 derived from the sale proceeds of FICN. The police also recovered from his house in Gurugram a range of equipment and materials used for printing FICN, including a lamination machine, three paper scaling and cutter machines, loose bundles of papers, tracing papers with 500, the photo of Mahatma Gandhi and RBI printed on them, unfinished paper sheets of FICN, and several other items.
Metodiev’s arrest was the result of thorough surveillance and intelligence gathering by the police. The accused revealed that he was part of a big international FICN racket and had been supplying fake currency notes to various people in Delhi and the National Capital Region based on instructions from his handlers sitting in different parts of the world.
According to the accused, he learned the art of printing FICN on YouTube and began printing them on his own after recognizing the high demand and profit margin. He was earlier arrested in 2019 by Tughlak Road police in a case of cheating and forgery for putting a skimming device in an ATM of HDFC Bank.
The Delhi police are now investigating the matter to uncover the extent of the international FICN racket and identify all involved parties. The arrest of the accused has sent a strong message to the criminal underworld that the police are committed to ensuring public safety and cracking down on organised crime.
