A police press release identified the accused as Davinder Singh of Gopal Nagar in the city and Narinder Singh and Nachhattar Lal alias Walaitia of Mahuwal village under Nakodar police station.

Preliminary interrogation of Davinder Singh revealed that he had got these dollars from an agent and delivered to his clients who journeyed to Bangkok in September, 1996. Davinder Singh delivered these dollars through Nachhattar Singh, a tout of travel agents, to clients at Indira Gandhi International Airport on September 9 when they took flight to Bangkok.

Police said these travellers found the dollars to be fake only after reaching Bangkok. These travellers returned to India with 800 fake dollars within a week and demanded Indian currency in lieu from Davinder Singh, who had delivered the currency to them through Nachhattar Singh. Davinder Singh then gave a cheque of Rs 20,000 to his clients in lieu of the dollars but it bounced on presentation. Later, Davinder Singh backed out from making payment and instead started threatening his clients with dire consequences if they disclosed the matter to police.

Police said all the three accused would be in police custody till tomorrow and they were trying to unearth the racket by catching main racketeers from Delhi and Mumbai.