Kolkata Police have arrested four people in connection with a suspected fake currency operation spanning Burrabazar and Howrah. The investigation began after two men were caught in Burrabazar carrying four bundles made to look like they contained Rs 20 lakh in currency.
The bundles, however, contained mostly white paper cut to the size of currency notes, with genuine Rs 500 notes placed only at the top and bottom. Police later traced the suspected operation to Howrah, where equipment allegedly used to prepare the bundles was recovered.
Two arrested in Burrabazar
The operation began after police received confidential information about two men allegedly carrying suspicious currency bundles near the Strand Road and Mirbahar Ghat Street crossing in Burrabazar on October 27.
The suspects were identified as 23-year-old Vijaypal Tanwar, alias Arvind, and 24-year-old Shiva Thapa. During a search, police found four bundles in Tanwar’s backpack.
Each bundle carried a forged ICICI Bank label claiming that it contained Rs 5 lakh. Together, the four bundles were presented as having a value of Rs 20 lakh. However, police found that the bundles contained only Rs 500 notes at the top and bottom, while 998 pieces of white paper cut to currency-note size were placed between them.
The genuine currency recovered from the four bundles amounted to only Rs 4,000.
A case was registered at Burrabazar Police Station on October 27 under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including provisions related to cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy. The case was registered as Case No. 171 of 2026.
Probe leads police to Howrah
Police interrogation of the two arrested men allegedly provided investigators with information about other people connected to the operation.
Based on the leads, police conducted a raid in Howrah and arrested two more people identified as 47-year-old Sunil Kumar Verma and 24-year-old Gopal Gujjar.
Investigators also recovered equipment from Howrah that they suspect may have been used to prepare the bundles. The seized items included a printer, a paper-rim cutter, two boxes of bond paper, a cello tape machine, scissors and ink cartridges.
Police probe possible wider network
The recovery of printing and paper-cutting equipment has led investigators to examine whether the operation involved more than simply transporting the bundles.
Police are now looking into the alleged roles of the four arrested men and whether other people were involved in the suspected network. The investigation is also examining how the bundles were prepared and where they were intended to be circulated.
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The case highlights a distinctive form of alleged fraud in which bundles were made to appear valuable from the outside while most of their contents consisted of paper. Police are continuing their investigation to determine the full extent of the operation.