Bhubaneswar, Feb. 4: Jajpur police today busted a racket and seized fake currency notes worth Rs 27.46 lakh from Ganjam.

The police have also arrested four persons, including the mastermind of the racket. The counterfeit notes included new notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500, apart from Rs 100 and Rs 50.

The first tip-off for the police came today when one of the gang members, Pradeep Kumar Pradhan, 34, was nabbed by Kaliapani police in Jajpur district with 82 fake notes of Rs 100 denomination, while he was trying to circulate the notes in the tribal-dominated market. "During interrogation, he disclosed the name of one Chandramani Bal, 32, and we nabbed him and seized fake currency notes worth Rs 50,000 from his possession," said Jajpur superintendent of police Anup Kumar Sahoo.

The police subsequently conducted raids at several places in the state and nabbed the mastermind of the racket, Ramesh Moharana, 43, from Ganjam.

The police seized fake currency notes worth Rs 26.16 lakh from Moharana and later arrested another gang member Sarbeswar Sahu, 45. The police said Moharana had provided the counterfeit notes to other accused in the gang.

Inspector general of police (central range) S.K. Priyadarshi said further investigation was on to nab other members of the gang. "All the accused were arrested on charges of preparation, possession and circulation of counterfeit currency notes. We are also trying to verify the antecedents of the accused persons," said Priyadarshi.

Further investigation revealed that Ganjam and Rayagada police had earlier arrested Moharana on similar charges. "We will bring him on remand to find out whether he was printing the fake notes or had brought those from other sources," said a police official.

The cops, however, went into a tizzy after finding so many fake notes. "

The new currency notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 had been released to the market after demonetisation in last November. But, the accused managed to get so many fake currency notes within a few months. The gang used to circulate the fake notes in smaller markets. We will interrogate them further to ascertain the amount of fake notes circulated by them," said a police official.

The police said the seizure was the major one so far after the demonetisation move.