Detective Branch of police on Saturday arrested five people, including the mastermind, Liakat Hossain Zakir, and four women with fake banknotes worth Tk 1.5 crore at a fake currency factory in the capital鈥檚 Kadamtali area.
The other four arrested are Lima Akhter Rina, Sazeda Akter, Romana Islam and Momtaz Begum.
A DB team of the Lalbagh Division raided the fake currency factory at a house from about 9:00am to 12 noon in the area.
DB officials said that they had recovered fake聽 banknotes worth Tk 1.5 crore and materials for making Tk 3 crore fake currencies from two houses, including special papers and cloths, special colours, four laptops, four printers, white papers, heaters, scales and paper-cutters.
They said that the ring was making fake currency targeting Eid-ul-Azha, one of the biggest religious festivals for Muslims.
鈥楩ake currency syndicates become active before the Eid-ul-Azha. We have counted the fake banknotes. The notes are worth about Tk 1.5 crore,鈥� DB Lalbagh Division deputy commissioner Mashiur Rahman, who led the team, said.
He said that they also recovered about two lakh rupees.
Zakir has been doing retail and wholesale business of fake currency for the past 25 years and he is an聽expert in making fake taka and rupees, according to the DB.
Zakir has developed a skill of making Tk 500 and Tk 1,000 fake banknotes since 2012 and he has now started making Tk 100 and Tk 200 notes so that the people cannot not suspect, DB official said.聽
Zakir was arrested in 2013, 2018 and 2020 but he did not give up the business, they said, adding that he was arrested half a dozen times by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police detective branch.
鈥榃e will file a regular case with Kadamtali police against the arrested people under the Special Powers Act,鈥� said the DB DC Lalbagh, Mashiur.
He said that they would find out others involved in fake currency trade online and offline and submit a prayer for remand.
