3 held in fake note case

PALAKKAD: The Palakkad Town North police arrested three persons in connection with the seizure of fake currency notes worth `8,46,500 here on Wednesday. The three were identified as Prasad,37, son of Krishnan of Nediyadath house, Pavaratty, Poovathur, Thrissur, and his accomplices M K Joy,43, son of Kochunni, Mandubalil, Perumbilavu, Kunnamkulam, Thrissur, and Manoj, 38, son of Kannu, Muthatt house, Pazhanji,Perunthuruthy,Kunnamkulam, Thrissur.  The police said the accused were arrested on Wednesday night from Chunnambuthara while travelling in an ambassador car.“The first accused Prasad has been named in many fake currency cases registered in the state. He was also an accused in the Thalassery fake currency case  being investigated by the CBI. Prasad was convicted and punished by the Manjeri court in a case registered in the Vadakkekad police station near Manjeri in 2003. He was absconding after jumping bail in 2008.” “There was a warrant against him. He was also an accused in the hawala case registered in Valancherry in Malappuram in 2007,” said DySP P B Prasobh.He said that Prasad after jumping bail was living in Mumbai and Tamil Nadu. He was arrested by the police when he came to Palakkad to hand over the fake currency notes to operators in Thrissur. It was based on a tip-off that the three were arrested.The second accused, Joy was arrested in a fake currency case in Guruvayur in 2000. He was in jail but he jumped bail and absconded. Joy was arrested by the police in 2010 and is now facing trial, said Circle Inspector of the North police station Biju K M.The officer said that the accused revealed that they used to bring fake currency notes from Coimbatore and it was a person Ramanujam who supplied the notes to them. Ramanujam is now in jail. He was apprehended two months ago along with a fake currency printing machine. They were part of a larger fake currency racket functioning in the state.The police said that the fake currency notes would easily pass off as genuine ones. The notes were printed on good quality paper and carried the figure of Gandhiji and water mark.The police said that they had received secret information that the accused possessed fake currency notes to the tune of `50 lakh, but it turned out that they had only `8.46 lakh. The role of the second and third accused were to find customers for the fake currency notes. The accused were produced in the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court II and remanded.