Malda, June 17: A police team from Hyderabad has arrested two brothers at Chaipara near the Bangladesh border on charges of running a racket of fake currency notes.

In December last year, the pradhan of Alipur I gram panchayat in Kaliachak, Saqila Banu, and her husband Liakat Ali had been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police on similar charges. Both of them are now in Aligarh jail.

Naba (28) and Arun (35) Saha, residents of Chaipara, about 10km from the border, were picked up last night by the personnel of the Hyderabad city taskforce from the garage of a motorcycle and autorickshaw that they own at Baliadanga More in Kaliachak.

According to the Hyderabad police, Raju Sheikh and Kamesh Sheikh of Kaliachak were arrested last week with fake notes having a face value of Rs 12 lakh in the Andhra Pradesh capital. During interrogation the duo told the police that they received the counterfeit notes from the Saha brothers.

“So far, we were in the dark about how the fake notes are coming to Hyderabad. The picture is clear now after the arrest of Raju and Kamesh,” S. Srinivas Rao, the inspector of the Hyderabad police, who led the four-member team to Malda, told reporters here today.

“The fake notes from Bangladesh are being routed through Kaliachak and Baishnabnagar to different states,” Rao said. He, however, did not rule out the involvement of the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency, behind the mischief. The matter has been brought to the Union home ministry’s notice, he added.

The team left for Hyderabad this afternoon with the accused duo.