Expanding their net beyond the localized manufacturing unit, Uttar Pradesh Police investigators have pivoted to dismantle the clandestine supply chain that engineered and fueled a massive ₹70 crore counterfeit coin operation busted in Saharanpur. Following the recovery of heavy industrial equipment from the illegal facility, law enforcement agencies are now tracking the clandestine toolmakers, die engravers, and mechanical fabricators who supplied precision machinery used to mint fake currency at an industrial scale. Sleuths emphasize that unmasking these back-end equipment providers is critical to dismantling a nationwide counterfeit pipeline, amid growing concerns that identical machine setups and precision dies may have been delivered to clandestine minting units running across other states.

Advanced Minting Setup: 59 Precision Dies, Industrial Polishers, and Chemical Ovens Seized

During the coordinated raid on the Saharanpur minting site, police teams recovered six operational heavy coin-stamping machines alongside 59 specialized metal dies, consisting of 20 engraved and marked master dies paired with 39 unmarked blanks ready for finishing. The confiscated cache laid bare a fully functional parallel mint, featuring mechanical die-polishing apparatus, industrial grinding stones, specialized hand tools like files, wrenches, saws, and heavy hammers, alongside high-precision electronic weighing forks and industrial heating ovens utilized to temper and treat counterfeit planchets. Investigators have initiated backward tracking to establish how the syndicate procured customized currency-grade stamping dies—items normally restricted under strict regulatory oversight—to trace the engineering workshops that fabricated them.

6,400 Fake ₹20 Coins Recovered: Unraveling the Retail Distribution Pipeline

Initial forensic assessments revealed that the syndicates achieved lucrative margins by mass-producing counterfeit 20-rupee coins. Police teams seized 6,400 finished fake ₹20 coins carrying a face value of ₹1.28 lakh, alongside an unfinished consignment of stamped coins valued at approximately ₹5 lakh. Interrogation of the captured operatives revealed that each counterfeit coin cost around ₹5 to ₹6 to manufacture, which was then offloaded to regional distribution handlers for ₹12 to ₹15 each. These agents subsequently circulated the counterfeit currency into local cash-heavy ecosystems, primarily pumping consignments through retail liquor vends, busy highway toll plazas, roadside eateries, and local grocery stores where small-denomination coins circulate rapidly without scrutiny.

Five Operatives Jailed as Sleuths Close In on Interstate Machine Vendors

The ongoing enforcement crackdown has led to the formal arrest and judicial remand of five key syndicate members: Upkar Luthra alias Abhay Pratap Singh, Himanshu alias Gullu, Kuldeep, Santosh Chaurasia alias Janardan, and Anurag Pal alias Lankesh. With the primary operators now lodged behind bars, the investigation has intensified around the vendors and metallurgical fabricators who supplied the raw alloys, heavy machinery, and precision dies to the accused. Law enforcement agencies fear that the specialized suppliers may have dispatched identical production toolkits to other rogue networks, making the ongoing hunt for the machine-die manufacturers a crucial step toward exposing duplicate minting units operating across northern India.