A payment made at a shop in lieu of five cigarette packets at Bhalswa Dairy in outer north Delhi led the police to uncover a fake currency printing unit in Navi Mumbai and arrest three persons involved in the illegal activity, the police said on Friday.

The accused have been identified as Natraj Mohan Kanchan (62), Vinod Munnilal Jaiswar (38), both residents of Mumbai, and Subhash Chandra (55), a resident of Maksudpur, Delhi.

According to the police, the case came to light after Pankaj, who runs a shop in Bhalswa Dairy, became suspicious of six notes of Rs 100 denomination and informed beat officer HC Prateek about it. The officer then alerted senior officers, following which the police detained Natraj Mohan Kanchan.

During interrogation, Kanchan disclosed that he was staying at a hotel at Paharganj, where the police recovered 180 counterfeit notes of Rs 100 denomination and 13 fake notes of Rs 500 denomination. Further questioning revealed that Kanchan had supplied counterfeit currency samples to Subhash Chandra for circulation in different parts of Delhi.

Acting on the information, the police apprehended Chandra and recovered 10 counterfeit notes of Rs 100 denomination from his possession.

The investigation further led the police to Kanchan’s residence in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, where, with the help of the Mumbai Police, they conducted a raid and unearthed a currency printing unit.

“The team recovered a laptop, printer, lamination machine, paper rolls, specialised watermark papers and other equipment used for manufacturing fake currency,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North) Shobit D Saksena.

The investigation eventually led to the arrest of Vinod Munnilal Jaiswar from the Navi Mumbai railway station. He was identified as the technical mastermind of the syndicate, responsible for designing counterfeit currency templates using computer software and facilitating their printing, the DCP said, adding that further investigation was on.