He thought the Sabarimala pilgrimage was the perfect cover to circulate fake currency notes. He blended seamlessly with 16 other pilgrims from across the Kasaragod district. He believed his plan was foolproof. But the meticulous way he carried out his scheme proved his undoing. The swamis retraced their journey to help police zero in on Kishore Kumar, a concrete worker whose brother-in-law was arrested by Mangaluru Police in August 2024 for printing and distributing counterfeit Rs 500 notes.

Kishore Kumar (35), a resident near Balagopal Temple at Kalnad in Chemnad grama panchayat, was arrested and remanded to judicial custody, said the Special Action Group Against Organised Crimes (SAGOC), which led the investigation.

Kishore Kumar thought he had pulled it off until, on January 6, Vinod, a coconut plucker from Arattu Kadavu in Udma grama panchayat, gave Rs 2,000 (four Rs 500 notes) to a mobile repair shop for changing his display screen. The shop owner realised three of the four notes were fake and asked him if he had more Rs 500 notes at home. To the shopowner's surprise, Vinod said yes and got a few more notes; two of them were fake.

The shop owner immediately filed a complaint against Vinod for distributing fake currency with Bekal Police. District Police Chief Shilpa Dyavaiah handed over the case to SAGOC, a special unit formed to monitor criminals and trace their sources of income in December 2021. "But we realised Vinod was innocent. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have fallen into the mobile shop owner’s trap," said Sub-Inspector Narayanan Nair, an officer with SAGOC.

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During questioning, Vinod told the police that he had withdrawn Rs 10,000 from a bank before heading to Sabarimala. He had kept the money in his 'irumudi kettu' — the two-compartment sacred bag where pilgrims carry offerings for Lord Ayyappan and essential personal belongings. Vinod also said he was part of a 16-member group trekking to Sabarimala from Pampa. "Not all 16 swamis knew each other personally, but they stuck together because they were all from Kasaragod district," Narayanan said.

SAGOC interrogated each member of the group one by one. "At first, they claimed to know nothing. But when we urged them to recall even the smallest details of the trip, some mentioned that Kishore Kumar always insisted on being the first to bathe or eat and often volunteered to guard the irumudi kettu of all 16 pilgrims," Narayanan said. "That was our first real lead."

Digging into Kishore Kumar’s background, police discovered that his wife's brother, Vinod Kumar K (not to be confused with the victim), was arrested by Mangaluru Police in August 2024.

V Priyesh (38), a resident of Karicheri village and owner of Sreelipi printing press at Cherkala, a town 7 km from Kasaragod; Vinod Kumar K (33) of Muliyar village in Kasaragod; Abdul Khader SA (58) of Kuniya in Kasragod's Periya village; and Ayub Khan (51) of Beliyur Katte in Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district were arrested from a lodge in Mangaluru reportedly with 427 fake Rs 500 notes. Mangaluru police said Priyesh printed the notes, and the others distributed them.

Vinod Kumar was in judicial custody for three months and came out of the prison in December. "When he was in prison, his mother visited him. On his advice, she dumped the transparent security strips and the special paper used for printing fake currency into the septic tank before the Mangaluru police could arrive," said Sub-Inspector Narayanan Nair of SAGOC. Kerala Police have now recovered the partially decomposed plastic strips from the tank.

However, before Vinod Kumar's mother could dispose of all the materials, Kishore Kumar went to his house and pocketed some fake Rs 500 notes hidden in the attic. "During questioning, Kishore Kumar admitted to taking 27 fake notes from Vinod's house. But we believe he took at least one full bundle (100 notes)," said SI Nair. He also reportedly confessed to swapping seven genuine notes in Vinod's bag with his fake ones.

Before arresting Kishore Kumar, SAGOC officers questioned his acquaintances. "Several of them admitted to seeing him with fake notes. One friend even said Kishore had given him three fake notes but quickly replaced them with genuine ones after he spotted the fakes," the officer said.

Last December, Kasaragod Town Police also registered a fake note case after the Indian Bank got four or five fake notes from a money transfer agent, said SI Nair. "During the investigation, police found that the money transfer agent got the fake notes from migrant workers in Kalnad. We now suspect Kishore Kumar to be behind it because he is also from Kalnad," said the officer.

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