NEW DELHI: International gangs are involved in smuggling of counterfeit Indian currency (CFIC) in India through Indo-Nepal border and Bangladesh borders and they have increased their activities in the past five months.
Notorious old players of this trade who are behind bars are throwing tough challenge through their newly recruited members. Another cause to worry is that many of the gateways on Indo-Nepal border, from where CFIC smuggling had been checked effectively in past years, have been revived again to pump in huge consignments of fake currencies, said a local intelligence officer. Terror angle to the heightened activates could not be ruled out, he added.
In view of possibility of terror modules getting involved in pumping in CFIC through Nepal border, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had also taken stock of the region some time back after which Indian security agencies also checked the entry of CFIC consignments through Bhairva and Sonauli borders.
Before Azamgarh police made a recovery of CFIC consignment of Rs 1.65 lakh value by arresting one Shafiq Ahmed, the ATS had ensured recoveries of fake currencies in huge quantities. ATS ASP Santosh Singh admitted that between October and February only, his field unit had handled more than five cases in which CFIC of Rs 16.50 lakhs value had been seized. On October 16, 2014 the inputs of ATS had enabled Patna police in Bihar to catch one Jitendra Singh of Gopalganj with a consignment of CFIC of Rs 7.50 lakh value. Jitendra was heading towards east UP after procuring CFIC from Bangladesh border when he was arrested.
For the ATS officials, a notorious CFIC smuggler Nizam Ansari of Ranchi, who is in this trade for years, has re-emerged as a serious challenge. On February 16 Nizam was arrested in Mirzapur with a consignment of CFIC of Rs 5 lakh value. Nizam had become compelled to come out of his den as his son Danish had been arrested on November 21, 2014 in Varanasi with his accomplice Sattar with CFIC of Rs 1.95 lakh value. After a month, one Manoj Nishad of Jaunpur was arrested in Varanasi with a CFIC of Rs 2 lakhs value. The officials said that maximum CFICs are reaching in east UP region through Nizam’s network.
The agencies are worried because the henchmen of CFIC suppliers in cross border area have not only increased their activity, but have also returned to their old strategy of sending big consignments of CFIC. Before October 2014 the frequency of CFIC supplies was not only low but couriers were being given small consignments of fake currencies. It was the same period when investigating agencies had started focusing at Kaliachak in Malda district of West Bengal, which had emerged as major hub of CFIC being smuggled through Bangladesh border after network of CFIC smugglers was broken on Nepal border, said sources.
