Police have busted an international racket that has been printing and circulating counterfeit Nepali currency. The Metropolitan Police Circle, Teku arrested five persons, including two former personnel of the security agencies, involved in circulation of fake currencies mainly of Rs500 denomination. Police have identified the arrestees as Nema Tamang, Bhesh Bahadur Thapa Magar, Dhiraj Bahadur Thakuri and Ashish Majhi. Tamang and Magar are former Nepal Police and Nepal Army personnel respectively.

According to Senior Superintendent of Police Bishwo Raj Pokhrel, chief of Metropolitan Police Range, Teku, over 20,000 counterfeit currencies have been confiscated.

SSP Pokhrel said an owner of a drug store in Kalimati informed police after he was handed suspicious currency by Thakuri.

Later, police found a fake currency note on Thakuri when they frisked him, leading to the arrest of other four persons.

During the probe, police found that the fake currency was brought by Nema from Birgunj.

“The currencies were printed in India and are of high quality,” said SSP Pokhrel. “We are surprised that these fake currencies are being circulated and further investigations have been initiated.”

SSP Pokhrel said they are looking for an Indian national who has been supplying the fake currencies in Nepal.

Interestingly, Tamang, a former police constable at the Central Investigation Bureau, was also involved in numerous cases related to the fake currencies.

Investigating officers said that Tamang has connection with an Indian national who has been supplying fake currencies for quite some time. However, Tamang has not revealed much about the amount of fake currencies that might be circulating in the market.

This is the second major incident this year that Nepal Police has come across that was related to fake Nepali currencies.

A month ago, police had arrested two Indian nationals while they were producing fake Nepali currency at no man’s land in Belauri Municipality-6 of Kanchanpur. Balbir Singh, 22, and Krishna Singh, 19, of Pilibhit district, India were arrested when they were producing fake Nepali currency notes of Rs 1,000 denomination.

Earlier in January last year, police had arrested two persons in possession of Rs 174,000 counterfeit Nepali currency in Morang. The detainees, identified as Sangit Mahato, 22, of Biratnagar-6 and Suman Tolange of Biratnagar-7, had 348 notes in denomination of 500.