A 42-year-old Nigerian identified as Nathan Ikechukwu Okubor was arrested in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, for entering India with a fake passport and visa and also having counterfeit US dollar bills, the Indian police said.
The accused from Agbor, Delta State was arrested on Monday, 1 March while trying to change the counterfeit US dollars at the Muthoot Financial Institution in the Kattoor area of Coimbatore.
According to the police, Okubor gave the bills to the money transfer officer at the institution and asked for them to be converted into Indian currency.
Officers who checked the bills revealed that they were all counterfeit. Following this, they informed the Kattoor Crime Branch police. Officers arrived, arrested the suspect, seized his identity card and the fake US dollars.
On Tuesday, the police and ‘Q’ Branch sleuths said that Okubor, arrived in Mumbai on 21 January from Nigeria using a fake passport and visa. He told them that he came to Chennai and from there to Coimbatore by bus.
“He reached Coimbatore on Monday and checked into a lodge at Gandhipuram. He later approached the Gandhipuram branch of a forex firm with US dollar bills. The employees at the firm suspected the genuineness of the currencies and found them to be fake,” said an investigator.
“The forex firm immediately alerted the Kattoor police in Coimbatore who took the man into custody and arrested him later.” the investigator added.
E.S. Uma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Coimbatore City Police, also confirmed that the currency produced by the Nigerian was fake.
During questioning, the Nigerian claimed that he got some US dollar bills exchanged for another currency at Mumbai airport. He also told investigators that he had come to Coimbatore for the cotton business.
He has been remanded in judicial custody in Puzhal Central Prison.
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