Man arrested for minting, circulating counterfeit coins

A 49-year-old man, suspected to be the kingpin of minting counterfeit coins, has been arrested and seized fake coins having face value of over Rs 8,000 from him, police said today.
Acting on a tip-off, Upkar Luthra was arrested from a hotel in Kondli in Haryana on July 4. The police had seized counterfeit coins in denomination of Rs five worth Rs 8,500 from him, they said.
The accused was carrying a reward of Rs one lakh on his head by the Delhi Police.
Upkar was wanted in several criminal cases, including a case of alleged killing of his business partner.

"His brother Sweekar Luthra was arrested in December last year. After his brother's arrest, he had been monitoring the trade of counterfeit coins from Nepal," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said.
In October last year, Delhi Police had arrested a 42-year -old man from Rohini in outer Delhi and seized fake coins of Rs 40,000 face value from him.

A few days later, the Special Cell claimed to have busted an inter-state fake currency racket with the arrest of two persons with counterfeit coins of Rs 5 and Rs 10 denomination worth Rs 5.85 lakh during raids at their hideouts in Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana.

Accused Gulshan Kumar and his nephew Sachin were arrested from Shiv Vihar, Nilothi extension. The kingpins of the racket were identified as Sweekar Luthra and Upkar Luthra.
After the arrest of his brother, Upkar went to Nepal and remained engaged in his illegal activities of counterfeiting coins.
The brothers learnt to make dyes of counterfeit coins from one Gulshan Gambhir, who died few years back. He arranged the metallic sheets from Mayapuri and Tilak Nagar.
From these sheets, the shape of coins were carved out at machines. After that, with the help of heating and hydraulic machines, the counterfeited coins were prepared, the police said.

Anti-rust spray was sprayed on the counterfeit coins for final finishing. The manufactured counterfeit coins were then circulated in toll tax centres, weekly markets and small shop keepers in various parts of Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana.