NEW DELHI: A 25-year-old man, painter by profession and aspiring for a government job, was so inspired by the recent Amazon Prime series ‘Farzi’ that he decided to follow the footsteps of protagonist Shahid Kapoor’s ‘Artist’ character.
The accused, Sakoor Mohammad, a resident of district Nagaur, Rajasthan was a graduate (Bachelor of Arts) and dreamt of taking a decent job and leading a successful life. He came to Ajmer in 2015 to prepare for competitive exams. But his life changed when he came across the recent web series which recently premiered on the OTT platform ‘Amazon Prime’.
Highly impressed by the character of Shahid Kapoor of a disillusioned artist who had failed to keep his grandfather’s revolutionary printing press in business and ultimately decided to team with his best friend Firoz to make counterfeit money, Sakoor thought of following the reel character in real life.
Subsequently, Sakoor along with his friend and co-accused Shiv Lal established a setup for printing Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) at Ajmer, Rajasthan. Just like the TV series character ‘Artist’, Sakoor too was a good painter and had in-depth knowledge of chemicals and inks, and ultimately used them in printing counterfeit currency.
Shiv Lal, a BA dropout and an NCC ‘C’ certificate holder came to Ajmer in 2011 for preparation of competitive exams. As he was in debt, he agreed for the task and took a house on rent where they began printing fake currency notes.
The remaining three accused — Himanshu Jain, Lokesh Yadav and Sanjay Godara joined the venture at this particular juncture. Jain, who was a BA graduate and an accountant by profession, was tasked by Sakoor and Lokesh to search for customers and finalise the deal of FICN. Lokesh had completed B.A. & B.Ed. and was selected as a Grade-III teacher in Rajasthan. He was tasked to supply the fake currency. Godara, was real brother of Shiv Lal and he too was preparing for competitive examinations.
Everything was going smoothly till the time the alleged began supplying FICN in the Delhi-NCR area. A senior Delhi Police official said that they received specific input that two persons named Sakoor Mohammad and Lokesh Yadav, who are involved in the circulation of FICN would come to the area of Akshar Dham Temple to deliver a consignment of FICN to a prospective receiver.
Accordingly, a team of the Crime Branch was formed, a trap was laid and the accused Sakoor and Lokesh were nabbed. In their search, the sleuths of the Crime Branch recovered high-quality FICN equivalent to ` 6 lakhs in the denomination of Rs 500.
Further, a raid was conducted at their rented accommodation in Ajmer from where the cops seized fake currency totalling Rs 11 lakhs and equipment used for printing, two laptops, three color printers, two lamination machines, paper sheets, ink and chemicals, green foil sheet used as ‘thread’ and ink.
