CHANDIGARH - Chandigarh city police Sunday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of fake currency smugglers, allegedly linked to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Police arrested a widow from Punjab’s Amritsar town early Sunday and seized fake currency notes with the total face value of Rs.480,000 from her possession.

“We have arrested Savinder Kaur from Amritsar and recovered fake currency notes with face value of Rs.480,000 from her possession. Rs.200,000 was in the denomination of Rs.1000 notes whereas remaining amount was in the denomination of Rs.500 notes,” Deputy Superintendent of Police (south) J.S.Khira told a press conference here Sunday.

He said the woman was brought to Chandigarh and police suspect that she is an ISI agent.

“She visited Pakistan four-five times in the past as part of the religious group and there is a strong probability that she was bringing this counterfeit currency from there,” he added.

Savinder Kaur, who was staying in Amritsar, 250 km from here, for the last 15 years, is originally from Srinagar. She had visited Pakistan five times in the last few years.

Police here also arrested another Amritsar resident, Yudhvir Singh, from Chandigarh Friday night. Officials said he was the kingpin of this racket and Savinder Kaur was arrested on information from him.

Police sources said that during the interrogation, Yudhvir admitted that they procured fake notes from across the border and they made a profit of around Rs.50,000 for every Rs. 100,000 in fake notes.

Five other members of this gang were arrested last month.

“We have also shown these seized currency notes to the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) officials. They said that it is very difficult for a layman to differentiate these fake notes from the original,” Khaira said.

He said the gang was supplying these fake notes in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and there is a possibility of more arrests in the coming days.