Meerut, Sept. 28 -- As many as 186 branches of Axis Bank across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand have come under police scrutiny after 1,323 counterfeit currency notes with a face value of Rs 4.63 lakh were detected in the currency chest of the bank's Mangal Pandey Nagar branch in Meerut. Police have begun examining a list of the 186 branches linked to the currency chest to establish the source and route through which the fake notes reached Meerut. The branches are located in several cities, including Saharanpur, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Moradabad, Roorkee, Kashipur, Haridwar, Haldwani, Dehradun, Sonipat, Panipat and Ambala. Sartaj Singh, manager of the Axis Bank branch in Mangal Pandey Nagar and a resident of Hisar in Haryana, submitted a complaint to Meerut SSP B B G T S Murthy on September 16. Subsequently, an FIR was registered at the Civil Lines police station on Wednesday in connection with the recovery of the counterfeit currency. According to the bank manager, during an examination of notes received between December 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025, the bank detected 1,323 counterfeit notes with a total face value of Rs 4.63 lakh. The counterfeit notes included denominations of Rs 500, Rs 200, Rs 100 and Rs 50. Police are now trying to trace the movement of the counterfeit notes and determine which branches and cities they came from before reaching the Meerut currency chest. Police are also examining previous cases involving counterfeit currency registered in Meerut. The Civil Lines police station has been designated as the nodal police station for such cases, and several earlier counterfeit currency cases were registered there. Some of those cases were later investigated by the Crime Branch and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). Investigators are now reviewing the previous cases to determine whether there is any link with the latest recovery. NIA probes Rs 17.29 crore fake currency case in Saharanpur This development follows the recovery of counterfeit currency with a face value of Rs 17.29 crore from the currency chest of Punjab National Bank in Saharanpur. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is investigating that case. Police officials said they could not rule out the possibility of the Meerut case being investigated by the NIA or ATS, depending on the findings of the ongoing probe. SP City Vinayak Gopal Bhosle said the counterfeit currency case was being investigated in detail....