Bhopal, Oct 15(HT): A former state level hockey player who was arrested on Friday for allegedly counterfeiting currency told his interrogators that a man from Bhopal had placed an order for printing fake notes with face value of Rs 3 crore before the state assembly elections, police said.

Aftab Ali (42) also known as Mushtaq Khan, a resident of Bhopal was arrested following the interrogation of five others who were nabbed on October 9 from two places - Rajgarh, 141 northwest of Bhopal, and Hoshangabad, 70 km south of Bhopal.

The police seized fake notes with a face value of Rs 31.50 lakh in denominations of Rs 2000 and Rs 500 from them, said Simala Prasad, superintendent of police, Rajgarh.

During interrogation the five men said the notes were scanned by a machine and later printed on sheets of paper before being cut and arranged in bundles. Police said the same serial number was printed on all the notes of Rs 2000 denomination while there was another number on all the notes of Rs 500 denomination. Police are yet to find out the place from where the gang procured the paper to print the fake notes.

Police said they revealed the name of Aftab as the kingpin of the gang involved in printing and circulation of fake currency notes in Madhya Pradesh.

“Aftab has been a hockey player who represented Madhya Pradesh seven times at the national level and was now in real estate business,” Prasad said.

Bhopal inspector general (IG) of police, Jaideep Prasad said, “Aftab used to take orders for supply of fake currency notes from miscreants and get the same printed through his gang. We are interrogating him and trying to ascertain the truth behind his claims that he got the order from someone else to print the notes.”

Aftab has been involved in circulation of fake notes for the past one year, police said.

Aftab claimed that according to the order from a man in Bhopal his gang was supposed to print the notes in denominations of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 before the state assembly elections to distribute the same among such people who cannot understand the difference between genuine and fake currency notes, police said.

However, Aftab has not disclosed the name of the man who allegedly placed the order for fake notes. He also claimed that he was asked to print the notes for a certain commission.

“As of now, we can’t say that the fake notes were being printed for its use during the elections but interrogation will bring out the truth,” said Prasad.

The state assembly election in Madhya Pradesh will be held on November 28.