The recent arrest of four persons by the City Task Force (CTF), including a notorious criminal who has three murder cases pending against him, for trying to smuggle and distribute Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), has become a worrying factor for the city police.
Top sources in the department told The Hindu that the senior officers are contemplating asking Intelligence Bureau (IB) or CBI or the Terror Funding and Fake Currency Cell at the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate the case, as the source of procuring the FICN is beyond the boundaries of the State.
Clear signature of Pakistan's ISI
More importantly, sources said the FICN seized was not like the earlier ones and had a clear signature of Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence).
“The fake currency rackets that we had busted earlier were mostly cheating cases or the FICN seized were not very close to the original notes and were mostly printed domestically. But in this case, the FICN seized complied close to 90 per cent of the security parameters of the original ones. Such notes have international connections,” said a senior police officer.
The CTF seized FICN of face value of Rs. 6.78 lakh from the four accused, and according to a senior officer from the State’s Intelligence Department such notes make way into the country from Pakistan via Gulf and the South-East Asian countries.
Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, some time ago had stated in the Rajya Sabha that FICN are being pumped into the country from neighbouring countries by creating a self-sustaining criminal network in the South and South East Asian Region via Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and UAE, in addition to the new route of China via Nepal. He also hinted at the major role played by the ISI.
Smuggled via Thailand- Burma and Bangladesh
Sources in the SIB said in this case the notes were pumped from Pakistan through UAE and was smuggled into the country via Thailand- Burma and Bangladesh.
“This is the worrying factor, as the India-Bangladesh border is very porous and Malda district in West Bengal, which is located on the India-Bangladesh border, is the main hub. It is from here that the network spreads to different parts of the country,” said DCP (Crime) T. Ravi Kumar Murthy.
The four persons who were arrested also procured the FICN from New Farakka, a border town located in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.
Sources said notorious criminal Gurajarapu Nalamaharaju came to know about the FICN in the jail from a smuggler from Malda who was arrested in a FICN racket earlier.
