COIMBATORE:A migrant worker from West Bengal, who was one of three men arrested for possessing and using counterfeit currency, was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail by the Assistant Sessions-cum-Subordinate Judge in Tirupur on Friday.
In October, 2010 a Tirupur resident had registered a complaint with Tirupur South police, alleging that three migrant workers had handed him a 1,000-rupee currency note as advance for a room. When the complainant tried to buy groceries with the note, a shopkeeper told him that it was fake.
It was learnt that the note was a Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN), and the three men were arrested. Police recovered Rs 2.46 lakh in counterfeit currency from them, apart from Rs 53,000 in original currency. The case was then transferred to CBCID (Counterfeit Currency Wing) in Coimbatore.
Two of the accused had jumped bail and have non-bailable warrants against them. One of them, Mohammed Ashraful Sheikh from Malda, West Bengal, was convicted under sections 489B and 489C of the IPC, and sentenced to four years and eight months in prison. The judge also slapped a Rs -1,000 fine on him.
Caught Red Handed
A 21-year-old man was caught red-handed while trying to break open an ATM near Periyanaickenpalayam on Thursday morning.
J Kannan, 36, was working as an ATM officer for a private company. On Thursday, he had gone to check the ATM of State Bank of India near Periyanaickenpalayam. He found the accused, G Duyuringse Rio from Manipur, trying to break open the machine.
He apprehended the youth and took him to Periyanaickenpalayam police, who remanded him to judicial custody.