KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 17
Racketeers continue to produce and circulate fake Nepali currency notes in the market to make quick bucks.
This came to light after police arrested four people with Nepali currency notes worth Rs 294,000 from Naya Bazaar, Kathmandu Metropolitan City. They have been identified as Prithvi Prasad Sah, 28, Mohammad Musarraf Ali, 27, Asraf Ali Sahid, 30, and Mohammad Samsad Alam, 28, of Rautahat.
Acting on information, a special team of Metropolitan Police Crime Division had carried out the operation.
The arrested were involved in producing and circulating fake currency notes in collusion. The fake banknotes are in denomination of Rs 1,000, said Superintendent of Police Krishna Prasad Koirala.
According to MPCD, meticulous observation is required to know that the notes are not genuine and thus many people might have been defrauded by them. Genuine notes feel rough when fingers are run through them, but fake notes lack this feature. Generally, fake Nepali currency lacks raised watermark, words and metallic thread - the permanent features of a genuine banknote.
Police have appealed to all to be cautious while carrying out cash transactions. Racketeers often circulate fake notes by also tucking them between genuine ones during late hours of the day.
Racketeers are using colour printer and scanning machine to print fake notes before circulating them in the market through its agents in an organised way.
Their targets are unsuspecting shopkeepers. They use the notes to buy goods in the evening and at night. The most common way of detecting fake notes is to look for watermark as fake notes do not have this feature. Besides, the ink of photocopier is delible when water is used on the notes.
Meanwhile, Kathmandu District Court has remanded them to five-day judicial custody for further investigation into the case.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 18, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
