Gurugram: The trail that led Faridabad police to a counterfeit currency operation did not begin with a tip-off or a raid. It began with a hotel housekeeping staffer noticing that room number 404-B at Hotel Sarovar Portico in Surajkund had remained locked for two days, with no one going in or out.
That small observation, reported to the Surajkund police station, helped police unravel a case that they themselves describe as bizarre—a 27-year-old software engineer with an annual package of Rs 34 lakh allegedly setting up a makeshift printing press in a hotel room to manufacture fake Indian currency notes.
The accused, Vinayak Jha, a resident of Sector 17 in Faridabad and an employee of a Noida-based IT company, was arrested after police traced him through the identity document he had submitted at the hotel’s reception desk. Jha is a graduate of a Bengaluru-based institute, police said.
A hotel room turned into a press
According to Faridabad police spokesperson Yashpal Singh, Jha checked into the hotel on 26 June under his own name and was allotted room 404-B.
When the room remained shut for two days, and the guest was untraceable, the hotel staff alerted police. Officers, along with hotel management, forced open the room and recovered a laptop, a printer, paper resembling that used for currency notes, one fake Rs 500 note and 10 fake Rs 100 notes.
The identity document Jha had deposited at check-in led police straight to his home, where he was found and taken into custody. He could not offer a satisfactory explanation for the equipment and counterfeit notes recovered from the room, police said.
Inspired by friends’ dollar reels
During two days of sustained questioning, what emerged left investigating officers surprised.
The police spokesperson said Jha told police that friends settled in the US regularly sent him Instagram reels showing themselves tossing dollar bills in the air or lounging on beds covered in cash. When Jha asked about it, his friends told him the currency used in those videos was not real but printed replicas.
That, police said, is what set Jha off on his own experiment.
Police said he began researching the design and printing specifications of Indian currency notes online, then ordered a printer and other equipment through online sellers based in Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar, along with specialised paper to resemble that used for real notes.
Police said Jha’s initial output was modest. Apart from the fake currency, he also had several more sheets printed but not yet cut. He was reportedly planning to scale up production when the locked hotel room brought the operation to a premature end.
According to police, Jha said he did not use the imitation money in the market but was only making it for reels.
Police have since taken Jha to the Sadar Bazaar market in Delhi, where he purchased the specialised paper, and identified the supplier from whom he had bought it.
Officers recovered several rolls of the paper from the supplier and are now examining the wider network of vendors involved.
Case registered, forensic probe ordered
Jha has been booked under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) relating to the manufacture of counterfeit currency, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years on conviction.
Police said his laptop, printer and other electronic devices have been sent for forensic examination to determine whether he had printed fake currency on any earlier occasion, and whether anyone else was involved in the operation.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)