 "Fake notes with Anupam Kher's pic instead of Gandhi dupes firm of Rs 1.6 cr")
A cheating case has been registered against unidentified individuals for allegedly duping a bullion firm owner in Ahmedabad of Rs 1.60 crore using counterfeit currency notes featuring the picture of actor Anupam Kher, Ahmedabad City Police reported on Sunday.
Veteran actor Anupam Kher reacted to the incident on X (formerly Twitter), stating, “My photo instead of Gandhi’s photo on the five hundred rupee note???? Anything can happen!”
The case was filed based on a complaint by Mehul Thakkar, the owner of a bullion firm in the Manek Chowk area of Ahmedabad. Thakkar was approached by individuals claiming to be interested in purchasing 2,100 grams of gold, requesting the gold to be delivered to a courier firm on CG Road in Navrangpura on September 24.
The fake currency also misspelled Reserve Bank of India as ‘Resole Bank of India’.
Thakkar sent his employees to the office, where the two accused handed over a plastic cover, allegedly containing Rs 1.3 crore in cash, and asked them to count it using a machine. While Thakkar’s employees were occupied, the accused left the shop under the pretext of collecting the remaining Rs 30 lakh from a nearby store and escaped with the gold. Upon opening the plastic cover, the employees discovered that the cash was fake, with notes featuring Kher’s image.
Inspector AA Desai of Navrangpura police station told The Indian Express that the accused had set up a fake courier company, renting the shop and installing a fake board to deceive the landlord, promising to sign a rent agreement within a day or two. The investigation is ongoing, and police are actively searching for the accused, although no arrests have been made yet.
Counterfeit notes in India
In the last four years, India has faced increasing issues with counterfeit currency despite efforts to combat it, particularly following the 2016 demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, which was partly aimed at curbing the circulation of fake notes.
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The RBI Annual Report for FY22 mentions that counterfeit currency detection rose in several denominations, particularly Rs 500, which saw a significant increase of 102 per cent. Additionally, counterfeit notes of Rs 200 and Rs 2,000 also showed a rise, while Rs 50 and Rs 100 denominations saw a decline. The total number of counterfeit notes detected across the banking system increased by approximately 10.7 per cent compared to the previous year.
However, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary stated that counterfeit notes had dropped from 317,384 in FY19 to 222,639 in FY24 in a Rajya Sabha response in August of this year.
[With agency inputs]