Kerala TV serial actor Surya (36), her mother Ramadevi (56) and sister Shruti (29) have been arrested for printing counterfeit currency at their residence here to make up for the losses they had incurred, police said on Thursday.
Surya has been a popular TV artiste featuring in several serials aired by a number of Kerala-based TV channels.
Circle Inspector of Police V.S. Sunilkumar, who led the police probe team and arrested Surya and her family members on Wednesday, told IANS they recovered an entire printing facility at their house. He added that two more accomplices were arrested on Thursday, taking the total number of arrests to eight.
All of the arrested persons were remanded to judicial custody on Thursday.
"We were able to recover about Rs 2 lakh counterfeit notes. We have seized papers, printers and other materials used to print counterfeit notes. Things including a fake RBI seal was stocked at their residence to print notes worth Rs 5 million," said Sunilkumar.
He said they traced a team of professionals in Idukki, who were engaged in printing counterfeit currency, who led them to the actress and her family members. He said the entire group was functioning as a "well-knit team".
According to reports, police estimate that Rs 57 lakh worth fake currency could have been printed in the house in the past few months. Fake notes of Rs 500 denomination were being printed in the house.
"The actress and her family have admitted that they were into this business of printing counterfeit notes since September last year," said the police officer.
The actress and her family had suffered a sudden loss in their business from unexpected quarters and were in trouble since, the officer said.
"We believe it was their chance meeting with a 'fake godman' who led the actress and her family into the racket of counterfeit currency business," said Sunilkumar.