*Police investigating terror links
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 24: Special Operation Group (SOG) Poonch busted a fake Indian currency racket operating from Pakistan and arrested five persons including a shopkeeper.
As the racket was operative from Pakistan with the involvement of people from this country, police is investigating the links of the arrest accused with terror groups also.
As per police sources, on specific information, SOG Poonch conducted a raid on a shop in Ari area of tehsil Mendhar and arrested five persons including the shopkeeper along with Rs 1.26 lakh fake Indian currency and 1.190 kilograms of heroine worth several crores.
The accused have been identified as Mushtaq Ahmed, son of Khan Mohammad of Deri Dabsi, at present Uchhad, Mendhar, Abdul Rehman, son of Mohammad Sadiq of Deri Dabsi, Nissar Ahmed, son of Mohammad Rafiq of Balnoi, Mohammad Imran, son of Mohammad Itfaq Khan of Uchhad, Mendhar and shopkeeper Amit Gupta, son of Ashok Gupta of Ari, Mendhar.
The accused Mushtaq Ahmed and Abdul Rehman used to manage the fake Indian currency and heroine from Pakistan and later hand over the same to shopkeeper Amit Gupta, who the help of associates, was pumping the fake Indian currency into the State and country.
There are apprehensions that the income from the narcotic drugs and counterfeit currency notes was being used for carrying out anti-national activities and acts of sabotage in Country and to ascertain the same police is also investigating the terror links of the arrested accused.
The four other persons identified as Younis, Parveen, Shabir and Mehmood involved in this racket are still at large and hunt has been launched to nab them.
By unraveling the module Poonch Police gave a major setback to the OGW/sleeper cell network active in the border district promoting the narco-terrorism and trying to destabilize the country’s economy by pumping in high quality counterfeit currency notes into the Indian market.
A case under FIR number 17/15 under Section 489-B, 489-C RPC, 8/18/20/21/22/23/29 Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and 15/17/18/39/40 ULA has been registered at police station Mendhar in this regard and investigation started.
The operation was carried out by Sheezan Bhat, DySP (Ops) Poonch and Surinder Kumar Choudhary, DySP (SDPO Mendhar) under the supervision of Amit Gupta, ASP and Jatinder Singh Johar, SSP Poonch.
It is to mention here that, this is the second major recovery of narcotics after the previous recovery of 56.160 kilograms of heroin by Poonch Police during the month of December 2014.
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