Ahmedabad, Aug 20 (IANS): The Ahmedabad City Crime Branch has successfully apprehended a fugitive who had been evading arrest for over two-and-a-half years in connection with a robbery case involving fake currency notes.

The suspect, identified as Jamadpar Singh, aged 28, was involved in a daring heist on February 2, 2022, in the Angadi area.

Singh and his accomplices allegedly ambushed a vehicle carrying Rs 2,09,00,000 in cash (all fake currency notes) and fled the scene after a violent confrontation, according to an official statement.

Officials shared, “This case had been registered under crime number 1121602220063/2022 at the Crime Branch Police Station. The charges included Sections 395 and 412 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 135(1) of the Gujarat Police Act. Despite numerous attempts to apprehend him, Singh remained at large until today, when we captured him at around 1:00 PM.”

Singh has been handed over to the Dholka Police Station for further investigation as authorities continue to unravel the details of the heist.

The Crime in India-2022 report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) revealed that Gujarat witnessed the country's highest seizure of counterfeit currency notes.

A whopping 11.28 lakh fake notes in the Rs 2,000 denomination were confiscated in the state, making up 98 per cent of the total 11.48 lakh counterfeit notes seized across India.

In a written response to a query by Congress MLA Anant Patel, the Gujarat government informed the legislature that 26 incidents of printing counterfeit currency notes were uncovered in the state over the last two years, with 17 incidents occurring in 2022 alone.

During this period, 17,271 counterfeit currency notes were seized, including 14,165 notes last year.