The sudden withdrawal of currency notes – perceived as an important tool to curb black money – has come with its share of problems. For most, in the form of long queues, and for a vegetable seller in Karnataka’s Chikmgalur district, in the form of a fake currency note. 

Ashok Kumar, a vegetable seller in Chikkamagalur town, has sworn not to touch the new currency for some months until it is commonly available with everyone.  

With many Indians are yet to get their hands on the new currency that was introduced earlier this week, Ashok, who has a shop at the APMC yard in Chikkamagalur town, was allegedly cheated by a customer on Saturday morning. 

Ashok says that he was not at the stall when the incident occurred at around 7.30 am. His sons attended to a customer who handed them the note to pay for 30 kg onions.

A worried Ashok told The News Minute that he learned that it was a fake note hours later through a friend. 

Ashok with the fake note

Back of the note

A case under section 420 of the IPC has been registered at the Chikkamagaluru town police station.

The Hindu quoted Superintendent of Police K. Annamalai as saying, “It was a photocopy of the original note. It is poorly photocopied, anybody can notice it easily. The person was given the copy by an unknown person in APMC market.”

Ashok however, has an explanation for why neither he nor his sons caught on to the deception.

“Neither I, nor they had seen the new Rs 2,000 note until then. So they assumed it was an original note. We found it was fake later, when a friend who had got the new note from the bank compared his note with mine. While the difference was obvious, it was difficult for a person who was seeing it for the first time to notice,” he said. 

Ashok hopes that he gets his money back, but in the meanwhile, says he will not accept any of the new notes unless it is from the bank.