Kingpin of fake coin minting racket nabbed in Nilothi

After being on the run for 10 whole months from Delhi Police, the kingpin of a fake Rs 5 coin currency module – which had been busted in Nilothi Extension area – has finally been arrested.

Upkar Luthra, who was running a fake coin minting factory with his brother Sweekar, was arrested from a hotel in Kundli, Haryana, police said on Thursday. He was in possession of a bag containing several counterfeit Rs 5 coins, worth Rs 8,500 in value, at the time of arrest.

Luthra had been arrested on previous occasions as well. He had entered the counterfeit coin minting business after his initial forays into small businesses in Uttam Nagar failed. He was convinced by some of his contacts in Dehradun to join the business due to the high pay-off, police claimed.

"After learning the nitty-gritty of the trade, he set up coin minting factories in several areas in Delhi. His factory locations kept getting raided and he was arrested twice after his factories in Anand Vihar and Nangli Sakrawati were raided," said a Special Cell officer.

Despite his two arrests, Upkar never revealed that he was acting in close coordination with his brother Sweekar. "Eventually, the brothers started setting up coin minting factories near the Nepal border to evade law enforcement agencies," the officer added.

Their coin minting module was busted in October last year, along with the arrest of two gun racketeers. Sweekar was also later arrested from Mohan Garden area.

After the police arrested Upkar from the hotel on the basis of inputs, he confessed to have been operating the racket from Haryana.

The police further said that the accused had would use a hydraulic machine, a grinding machine and a surface grinder to mint the fake coins.

"He arranged the metallic sheets from Mayapuri and Tilak Nagar area. Then, from these sheets, the shapes of coins were carved out at lath machines. After that, with the help of heating and hydraulic machine, the counterfeited coins were prepared," the officer further added.