Bhubaneswar, July 4: Members of a marriage party ran into trouble for flinging “toy” currency notes into the air while taking out a wedding procession today.

The “fake” notes, each of which were of Rs 1,000 denomination, caused a traffic jam near the Exhibition Grounds, when passers-by ran after them thinking them to be real.

Police, which thought the notes to be fake currency, took some of the revellers to the police station. After verifying that the notes were not counterfeit ones, police later let them off.

The trouble began around 11.15 am near the Exhibition Grounds where a bunch of baraatis (members of the wedding procession) began flinging “toy” notes into the air. Curious onlookers, mostly beggars and rag-pickers, ran after the flying notes.

In the melee, traffic came to a grinding halt. The notes (some of them are in the possession of The Telegraph) were of Rs 1,000 denomination each.

Strangely enough, some of them bore the picture of actress Katrina Kaif, and “Children Bank of India” was written in place of Reserve Bank of India.
The word “duplicate” was embossed behind each note.     

But the police were not game for seeing the humour in the situation.

A group of policemen waylaid the procession and started enquiring about the notes. They even picked up some torn notes and took a few of the revellers to the Kharvel police station for inquiry.  

“We found that the notes were toy ones. They were not counterfeit currency. So, it is not an offence. Such notes are available in the market as toys for children,” Satya Mishra, inspector-in-charge of Kharvel police station, told The Telegraph.

“We had received a call from a passer-by about the notes and the traffic jam. We did not want to take any risks and rushed to the spot to verify the accusation,” another police official said.  

One of the marriage party organisers said: “We had not imagined that we would be in trouble for such a petty thing. We are not fools.”