The Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh police Wednesday recovered fake Indian currency notes of more than Rs.20 lakh (two million) from a hideout in the Mainpuri district, police informed.

The recovery was made following the interrogation of one Girijesh Yadav, who was arrested with fake currency worth Rs.5 lakh from Manaknagar locality of Lucknow Tuesday.

Yadav was arrested on a tip-off by one of his accomplices, Arif, arrested earlier last week. The intelligence about Arif was provided by the Mumbai police.

The duo were engaged in circulating counterfeit currency for quite a long time and used to travel between Mumbai and Lucknow frequently, the police said.

During interrogation, Yadav also made some important revelations.

'Yadav used to supply fake currency to many gangs in Mumbai, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. It has been found that the fake currency supplied to Mumbai was used for 'hawala' transactions. It was also utilised to make payments to big builders on the instructions of D company (Dawood Ibrahim gang) and others', Additional Director General of Police (ATS) A.K. Jain told reporters.

'They started this business in Mumbai and slowly began supplying fake currency in many districts of the state, including Lucknow,' Jain added.

They used to manufacture the notes in Mainpuri as it is a small district and they could easily function without the police noticing it, he said.

In a similar catch, three people were arrested in Etawah district Monday and fake currency of Rs.850,000 recovered from them.

However, police said there was no connection between the two gangs, as those arrested in Etawah used to manufacture the notes with the help of computer, scanner and colour printer and circulated them in rural parts of adjoining districts.

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