Surge of fake notes
2 min readPatna: Nepal has, of late, turned into a safe haven for scrapped Indian currency notes post-demonetisation.
A letter issued by the Bihar police special branch has suggested that racketeers involved in circulation of fake Indian currency notes have adopted a new modus operandi to smuggle currency notes to Pakistan through Nepal.
The letter issued by the superintendent of police of the special branch to all the zonal inspectors-general, deputy inspectors-general and superintendents of police on April 11 this year also mentioned the names of the kingpins of the racket operating in the districts along the India-Nepal border.
While two Nepalese citizens – Habibul Raine and Master Saleem – both residents of Bara and Dhanusha districts in Nepal and Indian national, identified as Mohammad Imran, a resident of Sangam Vihar Colony in New Delhi, were main buyers of the scrapped Indian notes in Nepal.
The Nepalese citizens were buying scrapped notes in the denomination of Rs 500. Each note was purchased for Rs 25 from India before being brought to Nepal. Three land routes between Indian and Nepal – Birgunj, Bhairawaha and Kakrvitta – were mainly used to smuggle the demonetised notes.
Once the notes reached Nepal, they were sent to Pakistan where the “RBI security wire” was scrapped from all the smuggled Indian currency notes and processed into a scanner and printing machine from which the new Indian currency notes in the denomination of Rs 500 were printed.
The letter, a copy of which is with The Telegraph, said this way, each fake Indian currency note has the “RBI security wire” embossed in them at the printing press at Peshawar in Pakistan.
Even though the wires belonged to the old notes, the scanning machines at banks were not able to detect the discrepancies.
The deputy SP of the special branch has been entrusted with the task of ensuring strict vigil on the bordering districts of the state to check smuggling of demonetised notes from Indian territory to Nepal. “The porous border has made the task of the police more difficult,” the letter added.
An IPS officer posted at the state police headquarters said banned currency worth Rs 30 lakh was seized from a realtor in Patna in May last year. Similarly, a big haul of banned currency notes worth Rs 30 lakh was recovered from a house located at Dharampur in Samastipur district in April last year.
In addition, an abandoned bag containing old currency notes worth Rs 35 lakh in the denomination of Rs 500 was found by the Government Railway Police from Janshatabdi Express at Gaya railway station in December last year. The Central Industrial Security Force personnel had seized Rs 1.2 crore old currency notes from a Thai national at Patna airport.
The state government’s seriousness on the matter could be gauged from the fact that two letters had been issued to the police officers concerned twice in a fortnight.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
