Key fake currency operative held in Gujarat

The kingpin of a major fake currency racket in the country, having links with a Pakistan intelligence agency, was arrested by Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad and counterfeit notes with face value of Rs 1.35 lakh seized from his possession, officials said on Thursday.

Asgar Ali Abdul Hussain Abuli, who is believed to be the main agent of pumping counterfeit currency into the economy, was arrested on Wednesday night, ATS officials told reporters in Ahmedabad.

"Apart from Rs 1.35 lakh counterfeit notes, ATS has also seized some objectionable documents, besides a Bangladeshi passport from Abuli," ATS IG Ajay Tomar said.

"During the interrogation, we found that Pakistan and Dubai based elements, who run this racket, would send fake currency consignment to Abuli via Nepal and subsequently he would distribute in the network," he added.

He has links with officials of Pakistan intelligence agency, officials said.

The accused, who originally hails from Godhra, shifted to Pakistan with his family and got a passport from Karachi in 1977. Subsequently, he moved to Dubai in 1984 where he stayed till 1986 and thereafter returned to Pakistan, Tomar said.

In 1994, he was arrested in Karachi for forging a bearer certificate and was jailed for a couple of months, he said.

Abuli returned to India with his family in 1998 and landed up with sundry jobs in Godhra, Ankleshwar and Ahmedabad, ATS officials said.

"In 2002, he illegally went to Bangladesh and in October 2002, he obtained a Bangladeshi passport based on forged documents. After working there for a couple of months, he again went to Pakistan and Dubai and subsequently returned to India in 2005," Tomar said.

He also obtained a Indian passport from Pune-based on forged documents in the name of Lokhandwala Asgar Abul Hussain Abuli and he frequented Dubai via Karachi on the Indian passport, the IG claimed.

The accused was also a partner in a company Arabian Gulf Chemical based in Dubai and there he came in contact with some Pakistani elements, who prepared him to carry out secret mission in India, Tomar added.

"Later, he settled in Ahmedabad for two years and he used to visit different places in the country to gather information which would be supplied to intelligence agency of Pakistan," the ATS official said.

Subsequently, he started creating network of people for pumping fake currency in the Indian market and visited different cities like Surat, Ujjain, Delhi, Patna, Amritsar and Kolkata.