Counterfeiting news: Face masks, currency notes

According to a report published in The Indian Express on 10 November, the company has registered seven cases where over 47,000 fake masks have been retrieved through police raids, and FIRs have been lodged across Delhi, Ghaziabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Mumbai.

The masks seized during raids were made of inferior quality cloth with no quality checks to ensure they prevent exposure from virus. Instead of melt-blown non-woven fabric, small-scale manufactures use a similar looking fabric to make N-95 masks.

In the latest case on 3 November, Sahibabad police in Ghaziabad raided a manufacturing unit and found 7,562 fake masks with brand name Venus 4400 N-95. The FIR stated the manufacturer had used a white cloth and put a fake Venus seal to sell the masks.

These masks have made way into not just street-side stalls of hawkers, but also into chemist shops and ePharmacy portals.

In another FIR on 15 October by Dum Dum police station, 8,600 fake masks of 3M and 9,100 masks of Venus were recovered from a shop.

Man held with counterfeit notes  

A 24-year-old man was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad with counterfeit currency with a face value of Rs 3.5-lakh in Navi Mumbai.

According to PTI, the Navi Mumbai unit of the ATS on 9 November night laid a trap near a petrol pump at Kalamboli on the Sion-Panvel highway and nabbed the man, Faizal Idris Shaikh, with the fake notes. The police recovered fake currency notes of Rs 2,000, 500 and 200 denominations, which he had printed at his residence, with a total face value of Rs 3.5-lakh.

Printing materials were also recovered from the accused person.

 (Courtesy: Agencies)