THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Pangode police have arrested two men on charges of possession of counterfeit currency notes.
Police, however, said that they have reasons to believe that the first accused was trapped by the second accused in a bid to save himself.
According to police, the first accused has a learning disability.
He is also related to the second accused, Jaleel of Valiya Kanichode near Vamanapuram.
Jaleel who was smoking outside the house of the first accused was booked for public smoking by an Excise team that was paging by.
He gave them a fake Rs 200 note as penalty for the offence.
Since the currency note Jaleel gave appeared to be fake at first glance itself, they took him to their office for further examination around 9pm on Wednesday.
The Excise party led by Vamanapuram range inspector G Mohan Kumar then consulted officials of a nearby bank and confirmed that the note was indeed fake.
Following this, Pangode police were informed.
They searched the residence of the first accused and seized more fake notes, which led to his arrest.
As many as 45 fake notes, in the denominations of Rs 100, Rs 200 and Rs 500, were found in his possession.
`As per his statement, Jaleel handed him his purse just before the Excise officials took him to their office,” said Pangode SHO Inspector Philip Sam.
At first they were in a dilemma on whether to book Jaleel too as only one fake note was recovered from him.
Normally in such situations, the person in possession of the fake note gets the benefit of doubt.
But later in the night, following a close examination of notes, they found that the Rs 200 notes seized from both men belonged to the same batch of serial numbers.
Thus, Jaleel too was arraigned as second accused in the case.