Imphal West Chief Judicial Magistrate on Wednesday remanded two non-Manipuris in 10-day police custody till April 22 for allegedly counterfeiting fake currency notes.
The duo, namely Ram Prasad Sharma, 24, son of Swan Rao Sharma of Samadsar, Sri Dungargarh, Rajasthan and Vinod Sharma, 24, son of Hanraj Sharma of Surpura Bikaneer district, Rajasthan were produced before the court by ASI RK Chinglensana Singh of City Police Station.
The investigating officer of the case submitted a prayer for remanding them in police custody for 10 days i.e. till April 22, 2022.
They were arrested on April 12, following a complaint lodged by one Sunil Sharma who is the owner of Sonu Clothes Shop Alu Galli, Thangal Bazar. As per the complaint, two men came to the shop on April 11 and demanded Rs 10,00,000.
It was submitted that Sunil Sharma was surprised and denied giving them the money. An intense argument ensued amongst them, and they tried to overpower the complainant, during which he started shouting for help.
The two men managed to flee by taking advantage of the crowd in the bazaar. In hurry, they left behind a handbag and some fake notes of Rs 500, stated the investigating officer of the case.
During police interrogation, they disclosed that they were working under the command of one Ram Avtar of Rajasthan now staying at Bara Bazar, Kolkata. It was submitted that they were doing business of depositing fake currency notes to a ‘Hundi Store’ and collecting the genuine ones from other branches.
The 10 lakh they demanded was to be deposited by Ram, the investigating officer stated.
It was further submitted that they were doing this business since 2021 under Ram in different parts of the country. Ram Avtar managed all their travelling charges and after completion of a particular task. They get Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 from Ram.
Since, 2021 they have performed many successful tasks in different parts of the country, especially in the Northeastern states with Ram.
It was submitted that deposition of fake currency notes were also done by Ram Avtar and their job is to collect the genuine notes from different branches of ‘Hundi Stores’ exchanging the fake notes to genuine notes.
As part of the business, they came to Imphal on April 9 to collect ‘Hundi Money’ of Rs 10,00,000 from the complainant as instructed by Ram.
Additional public prosecutor for the state submitted that the case is very serious and other co-accused persons are yet to be arrested from different areas of Kolkata for examination or interrogation during the custody of the accused persons.
The court, looking into the nature of the alleged offences and stage of investigation, remanded the duo in police custody for 10 days.
