Three persons were arrested on Saturday night from Helem in Gohpur in Assam’s Biswanath district for smuggling counterfeit currency.

A source said the arrested persons have been identified as Rabin Ray of South Sikkim, Subhash Ray of West Sikkim and Amit Thapa of Siliguri in Bengal.

According to the source, the three smugglers brought the notes for circulation in Gohpur. Police reached area based on a specific input and succeeded in apprehending them and recovered the fake notes. The police arrested them after spot interrogation.

They also recovered Rs 3.32 lakh (all Rs 500 notes) and fake currency valued at Rs 7,000.

According to the police, the accused confessed they “purchased” the fake notes from Lakhimpur and were preparing to circulate them. An investigation is still on.

ATM theft arrest

An executive of a firm, which loads cash in SBI ATMs, was arrested in connection with the theft of over Rs 50 lakh from two kiosks in Assam’s Hailakandi district.

On January 31, Rs 25.95 lakh was looted from an SBI ATM at Lakshmisahar in Hailakandi town. On January 12, around Rs 25 lakh was looted from another kiosk at Algapur bazar in the district.

Hailakandi superintendent of police Pabindra Kumar Nath said T.M. Monisena Singha, who was in-charge of loading cash in the ATMs, was arrested in connection with the thefts.

Nath said suspicion was aroused after both ATMs were looted in the same style and CCTV cameras were found damaged. On inquiry, the police found the CCTV cameras were non-functional for several months but the firm did not report it to SBI.

Police suspect the robbers have some connection with the service provider. Nath said they will soon arrest the entire gang. Singha was produced in court on Sunday and sent to police custody for two days.

Additional reporting by Satananda Bhattacharjee in Hailakandi