Coin Melting Unit Busted - 5 Arrested

Times of India
TNN | Jan 8, 2011, 05.27AM IST

NEW DELHI: The special cell of Delhi Police, on Friday, claimed to have busted two illegal factories involved in melting old Indian coins and converting them to metal slabs for sale in the open market for making artificial jewellery and antiques worth a couple of crores of rupees.

Five persons: factory owner Mohd Jameel and his acquaintances, who doubled up as his labourers; Mohammad Faeem; Mohd Salim; Rahmat Ali; and Mursalin were arrested on January 5 in connection with the case, Arun Kampani, deputy commissioner of police (special cell), said. Raids were conducted on January 5 in two factories at Johripur and Karawal Nagar from where nearly 1,550 kg metal slabs, huge quantity of coins, dyes, air pumps, motors, weighing machines, tools and other gadgets were recovered.

Another raid was conducted in Shahbad Dairy and Sadar Bazar and 350 kg of metal slabs were recovered from the premises owned by one Shyam Sunder, who is absconding. "These old coins, which had been issued by the Government in 1970s, 80s and 90s, had substantial metal weight. With the passage of time, metal value of the coins increased vis-a-vis denomination value of the coins due to the rise in metal cost. The situation led to this racket of fraudulently melting old coins of 50 paise, Re 1 and Rs 2 denominations into bricks, and further selling these to metal dealers," Kampani said.

A rough estimate revealed that 1 kg of coins comprised 150 coins valued at an average of Rs 150 per kg. The accused had been procuring the coins from Chandni Chowk. "The melting of coins weighing one kilo yielded the metal quantity, which was further sold at Rs 400 per kg. This means the accused made a profit of Rs 250 per kilo," Kampani said. Jameel (58) hails from UP's Moradabad and was residing in West Karawal Nagar. A case under sections 246 and 247 (fraudulently or dishonestly diminishing weight or altering composition of coin) of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the arrested persons.

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