Kathmandu, December 24

Police have arrested four Bangladeshi nationals with counterfeit Nepali currency notes with face value of Rs 18,000 from Lokanthali in Bhaktapur today.

Those taken into custody have been identified as Suman Khan, 26, Ali Ahamed, 41, Robel Mikda, 21, and Mohammed Ullah, 21. All the fake banknotes are in denomination of Rs 1,000. Police initiated action after the owner of a gift shop in Thimi Municipality-1, suspected that two banknotes tendered by Khan were not genuine and alerted local police on Thursday.

Acting on the information, police launched a search operation and arrested the four Bangladeshi nationals with counterfeit notes worth Rs 18,000.

Bhaktapur District Court remanded them to five-day police custody for further investigation into the case. The racketeers were involved in circulating fake banknotes and using them to purchase goods at night. They tucked the fake banknotes between genuine ones in order to circulate them.

“You need to make meticulous observation to say that a note is not genuine and thus many people might have been defrauded by the gang. A genuine note is felt rough when you run your fingers through it, but fake notes lack this feature. Generally, fake Nepali currency lack raised watermark, words and metallic thread, permanent features of a genuine banknote,” police said, appealing to all to be cautious.

In 2018, Nepal Rastra Bank had warned that circulation of high denomination counterfeit notes could adversely affect the country’s economic security. Earlier, police had arrested six persons with counterfeit Nepali currency notes with face value of Rs 26.06 million from different places of Kathmandu and Lalitpur.