Fake currency: Accused used to pose as 'Nizam of Hyderabad's descendants'

Members of a gang which dealt in counterfeit currency, arrested here earlier this week, used to tell gullible customers that they were descendants of the Nizam of Hyderabad, police said on Friday.

In a joint operation on Wednesday, Pune Police and the Army's Intelligence Wing carried out raids in Viman Nagar area and seized fake Indian currency, mostly dummy bills of 'Children Bank of India', and US Dollars with a face value of Rs 87 crore.

The accused were identified as Shaikh Alim Gulab Khan who is a serving Army personnel, Sunil Sarda, RiteshRatnakar, Tufail Ahmed Mohammad Ishaq Khan, Abdul Gani Khan and Abdul Rehman Abdul Ghani Khan.

According to the police, the gang was operating here for the last seven-eight months, and used to target people with black money.

"Their main modus operandi was to exchange US currency with Indian currency or vice-versa," said a senior police officer.

The gang would dupe the customers by passing off fake note bundles with real currency on the top in exchange of genuine currency.

"To gain the trust of the victim, the accused showed them videos of the cash along with that day's newspaper to convince the victim that they had piles of cash ready at the bungalow," he said.

If the customer questioned the source of cash, the accused would tell him that they were descendants of the Nizam, he said.

"They had even put pictures of the Nizam outside their bungalow," the official said, adding that further probe was on.