Three Iranians have been nabbed by the police on charges of fake currency deals in Wanowrie, Pune. The crooks could be caught due to timely alert generated by employees of Axis Bank of Wanowrie.

One of the culprits was trying to deposit fake currency notes worth Rs. 40,000 in the bank. Two others have been caught for smuggling fake notes to India from Iran.

This has been the first time that a foreigner has been caught depositing fake notes in Pune.

The police have identified the suspects as Mansoor Lalbaksh Bibak (28), Monirahmad Alam Kalkaly (35) and Mohammed Farough Damani Fard (35).

The case so happened that Bibak had come to the bank to deposit 40 notes of Rs. 1000 each in his account. The cashier found the notes to be fake under the UV lamp machine and reported it to the manager. The manager then asked Bibak to wait and called the police.

Bibak later revealed the names of Kalkaly and Fard, and said that these people had given him the notes to deposit in his account as they wanted to book online flight tickets to New Delhi and Goa.

The police searched Bibak's flat and took his two accomplices into custody and seized two counterfeit notes of Rs 1,000 and four notes of Rs 500 denominations and two laptops. The police also took two more Iranians identified as Nasir Navab Afrain (24) and AliAsghar Abdoulazia Tabavar (28) into custody for questioning as they were found in the same flat at the time of the search.

Bibak has been staying in India since 2004. He had come to Pune for higher education. Currently, he is doing a course in master of computer application at a private institute.
Bibak told the police that his friends gave him Rs 40,000 and asked him to deposit it in his account so that they can book the tickets and use a debit card to withdraw money when they are on a tour.

The bank manager has lodged a complaint against Bibak under section 489 (b) of the Indian Penal Code.