Bengaluru: African national earned Rs 1,600 for every Rs 10 invested till cops knocked on his door

BENGALURU: Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths have arrested a 35-year-old Cameroonian on charges of printing and circulating fake currency notes. He would print a Rs 2,000 denomination note by spending less than Rs 10, said police, while pegging the face value of the seized counterfeit notes at Rs 33.7 lakh.
The accused, Dieudonne Chrispol, is a resident of Subbrayanapalya on Banaswadi Main Road and a citizen of Cameroon in Central Africa.According to police, Chrispol came to India in 2017 on tourist visa, continued to stay here illegally and was into peddling drugs before he got into the fake currency business.
CCB sleuths recovered fake currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination.
Based on a tip-off, police raided his house on Friday night. During the operation, CCB sleuths recovered fake currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination. While one set of notes was printed on both the sides and had a face value of Rs 18.4 lakh, another set of Rs 15 lakh was printed only on one side.
Chrispol claimed he had been printing the notes for five months to make a quick buck, according to police. Investigation revealed Chrispol bought paper sheets from Chickpet, printed four Rs 2,000 notes on each page and sold each for Rs 400 among Africans living in Bengaluru. Police said: “With less than Rs 10 investment, he was making Rs 1,600.”
Investigating officials said they are yet to find out how he came up with the idea of printing fake currency. However, he had a huge market among African nationals in the city. He sold these notes to a closed network and delivered them in person at night, said police sources.
He has not disclosed the amount of money he made, but going by the valuables at his house, he earned nearly Rs 1 lakh by selling counterfeit currency. For example, if he printed and circulated 250 notes of Rs 2,000 face value, he would print Rs 5 lakh. He would have got Rs 1 lakh by spending a meagre sum on 63 sheets and colour ink for the printer, said a police officer.