Berhampur: Police on Sunday busted a fake currency note factory at Christian Sahi in K.C.Pur village in Gumma block of Gajapati district. The racket mastermind, Santasila Sarangi managed to flee.

"We have seized a computer, a hard disc, a printer, a UPS machine and other materials from a shop owned by Sarangi," said officer in charge of Seranga police station R.N. Patra, who co-operated with Chandli police of Rayagada district during the raid.

The police forces of Rayagada and Gajapati districts jointly conducted the raid in Gumma block after Chandli police arrested three persons for their involvement in the fake currency note racket.

"We arrested Yasowant Jena and his son Ranjan of Kolnara village in Rayagada district earlier when they were trying to give a fake currency note of Rs 500 face value to a shopkeeper in a weekly market. We swung into action after the shopkeeper informed us about receiving fake currency notes from a customer. We seized nine fake currency notes of the face value of face value of Rs 500 and also seized valid cash worth Rs 10,000 from the possession of Yasowant and Ranjan in Jinjilibadi village. After interrogating them, we also arrested Rajkumar Pani of Putasingh village, who was another member of the racket," said officer in charge of Chandli police station Manoj Kumar Behera.

All the three were forwarded to court on last Saturday.

The police said that the racket mastermind, Sarangi, was circulating the fake currency notes. The members of the racket mainly preferred weekly markets or various yatra venues in villages. Their areas of operation were tribal dominated villages in Gajapati and Rayagada districts. Sarangi was supplying fake currency notes of the face value of Rs 5,000 against the payment of valid currency notes worth Rs 1,500, said Behera.