The police have seized counterfeit notes of Rs 500 denomination with a face value of Rs 3.44 lakh.

The arrests in Indore were made on the basis of information given by those arrested in Navsari on Monday. A team of Special Operations Group of the Navsari police went to Indore in Madhya Pradesh and arrested four persons, including two women, on Tuesday. The police have declared another gang member, Vajhul Shamshad, as ‘wanted’. He is believed to have taken refuge somewhere in Gujarat.

The arrested have been identified as Afzal Nasari, a resident of Nepal, Shamim Ansari, Manzur Alam and Neelam Pandit (all residents of Bihar). The police had seized 55 counterfeit notes of Rs 500 denomination with a face value of Rs 27,500 and four fake currency notes of Rs 1,000 denomination.

Navsari District Superintendent of Police Premveer Singh said: “We have arrested five persons who belong to Nepal, while three others are from Bihar. All the arrested had purchased these notes at half rates from one Sher Mohammed of Bada district in Nepal. We will take help of the Nepal police to locate Sher Mohammed.”

He further said that the arrested Nepalese nationals were earlier working as tailors and farmers. “We are finding as to how the money had come with them. We are also not ruling out the possibility of the involvement of the underworld,” Singh said.

Earlier, acting on a tip-off, the local police had caught one Alam Bashir Ansari, resident of Shree Ganesh society at Sachin GIDC in Surat, with counterfeit notes of Rs 500 denomination. Alam used the notes to purchase a carry bag from a general store near the ST bus stand in Navsari on Monday. The shopkeeper, after checking the note, found it fake and demanded another note. Alam produced a bundle of 25 notes of Rs 500 denomination and gave him one. After finding that this note too was fake, the shopkeeper left his shop on the pretext of getting some change money and informed the police.