Police has arrested a 39-year-old man, supposed to be the kingpin in minting counterfeit coins and seized counterfeit coins over Rs 17,000 from him, police said today.
The Special cell arrested Sweekar Luthra yesterday from Mohan garden, Uttam Nagar on the basis of a specific input, said DCP(Special Cell) Sanjeev Yadav.
In October this year, Delhi Police had arrested a 42-year-old man from Rohini in outer Delhi and seized fake coins of Rs 40,000 face value from him.
A few days later, the Special Cell had busted an inter-state fake currency racket with the arrest of two persons with counterfeit coins of Rs 5 and Rs 10 denomination worth Rs 5.85 lakh during raids at their hideouts in Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana.
Accused Gulshan Kumar and his nephew Sachin were arrested from Shiv Vihar, Nilothi extension. The kingpin of the racket was identified as Sweekar Luthra, who was declared absconding and was evading arrest.
Yesterday, around 9.05 PM, a white Maruti Celerio car was located on the Mohan Garden main road. The car, being driven by Sweekar, was chased and intercepted near Atul Chowk, said the officer.
Police seized counterfeit coins worth Rs 17,390 in the denominations of Rs 5 and Rs 10 from his car, added the officer.
"During 1997, his elder brother Upkar Luthra came in contact with one Gulshan Gambhir of Dehradun, who gave him the idea to enter the illegal trade of manufacturing of counterfeiting coins of Rs 5.
"In 1999, Upkar, was arrested with the counterfeited coins of Rs 5 but he did not disclose Sweekar's name. Soon after being released, Upkar again established another unit for making counterfeit coins but was arrested. He didn't disclose his brother's name," said the officer.
Till 2008-09, Upkar grew in the trade but his brother's name was still unexposed. Upkar escaped to Nepal and started managing the affairs of the illegal trade with respect to circulation of counterfeit coins from there.
Sweekar took over the command of manufacturing the counterfeit coins.
Sweekar killed his accomplice Satish in Bihar over the
issue of payments in 2010. In the same year, some of Sweekar's associates were arrested by Special Cell and his name emerged as the kingpin of the racket.
He remained underground and could only be arrested in 2011 by Delhi Police. However, after being released from jail, he met with one Pankaj Gupta (Kabadi) in Rani Bagh, Delhi and again started the same illegal trade of manufacturing counterfeit coins of Rs 5 and Rs 10.
He was again arrested by Delhi Police.
"Sweekar along with his brother learnt to make dyes of counterfeiting coins from Gulshan Gambhir, who died few years back. He arranged the metallic sheets from Mayapuri and Tilak Nagar areas.
"From these sheets, the shape of coins were carved out at machines. After that, with the help of heating and hydraulic machines, the counterfeited coins were prepared," he said.
Anti-rust spray was sprayed on the counterfeit coins for final finishing. The manufactured counterfeit coins were then circulated in toll tax centres, weekly markets and small shop keepers in various parts of Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana.
