Express News Service By

The city police seized high quality fake Indian currency notes (FICN) with a face value of Rs 5 lakh after a daring car chase late on Friday. Three men have been arrested in connection with the crime.

JCoP (West) K Shanmugavel said a Ford Ikon drew suspicion after it evaded a vehicle check post on the Erukkancherry High Road late on Friday. Following a hot car chase by the cops, the passengers abandoned the vehicle and fled. Police nabbed Abdul Munnaf (20) of Washermenpet. His arrest led them to Abdul Ismail (22) of Mannadi and Wasim Raja (24), who have also been held.

Meanwhile, Rs 1 lakh in FICN was recovered from the car and Rs 42,000 in fake notes was seized from Munnaf’s room. Another FICN stash of Rs 2.65 lakh was confiscated from Erukkancherry resident Rafique’s house on Sivasankaran Street.

Additional Deputy Commissioner S Jayakumar told Express that the police had to seek help from Bank of India’s Kodungaiyur branch to verify the authenticity of the notes as it was hard to tell even on close inspection. All three men claimed innocence and blamed Rafique for bringing in FICN.

“We are after Rafique, who will lead us to the source. We have secured some lodging receipts of hotels based in Kolkata. We are pursuing this angle as well to track the origin for fake notes,” Shanmugavel said.

Rafique is already wanted in a fake currency note case pending with Central Crime Branch(CCB) police. The police have recovered a photo of him from his house.

Ismail was Rafique’s relative, Munnaf was an electrical workshop worker at Mannadi and Wasim Raja was an auto-driver by profession, police said. All three men knew about Rafique’s illegal business and were his associates, the police said.

Besides the FICN, a desktop computer, two tablets, a USB modem, an Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machine, the getaway car and a bike were confiscated.