Following a special tip-off, police arrested Farukh Shaikh Muhammad, 48, a Pakistani national, for carrying the fake money from Karachi, and Muhammad Narullaha, 61, a Nepali national who tried to establish connections with other Nepali agents. [break]
Farukh, originally from Azizabad of Karachi, had arrived from Qatar on the Qatar Airline plane QR-351 with the fake currency hidden inside his luggage. He was travelling on passport number DF 8964621.
According to Metropolitan Police Range Office spokesperson DSP Chakra Bahadur Singh, police had been suspicious of Narullaha, who had reached TIA to receive Farukh with the fake currency. A Police Headquarters source said that Haji Tadaad, a Pakistani currency smuggler, had sent Farukh to Nepal with the fake currency to hand it to Narullaha.
Farukh has confessed to police that another racketeer from Pakistan, named as Sultan, had asked him to provide the money to Narullaha, who is originally from Kaski District. According to Narullaha, he had met Haji 30 years before in Dubai while he was engaged in gold trading.
He has claimed to police that the deal was struck in April during a visit to Pakistan and the fake currency was brought accordingly. He was to receive the fake money from the transporter and hand it to Rabi Singh, a resident of Ratopul. His visit to Pakistan in April was managed by Singh and one Sunil. He has also claimed that Singh and Sunil have been involved in fake currency smuggling since the last few years.
He further claimed that the late media entrepreneur Jamim Shah, Rabi Singh and he had very good relations with each others. Singh has been operating a housing business in India for long and is involved with the Karate Association of Nepal, according to Narullaha. He also claimed that he had worked as a coordinator of Channel Nepal Television some years earlier.
The seized fake Indian currency notes are in denominations of 1000 and 500. Police had arrested one more on suspicion but later released him as his involvement was not established. Both those held have been remanded to police custody by Kathmandu District Court for further investigations. This is the second seizure within a period of 24 days.
Police had arrested Zulekha Bano, who is in her forties, and her 19-year-old son Essa Danish, in possession of fake Indian currency worth Rs 4.5 million. They had arrived in Kathmandu from Karachi with the fake currency by Pakistan International Airlines on April 15. The fake money was wrapped around their bodies.
They had confessed to police that they transported the fake Indian currency to Nepal to provide it to Nepalese racketeers. The suspected racketeers are still at large though police had claimed that they were closing in on them.
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