BHUBANESWAR: The officials of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Thursday seized fake currency notes worth Rs 3 lakh from a passenger travelling in Yesvantpur Express near Khurda Road Junction. The passenger was travelling from Rampurhat in Malda to Bengaluru. Acting on a tip-off, the DRI officials intercepted the passenger from Jharkhand and recovered fake notes of Rs 2,000 denomination from an airbag. The man was carrying the fake notes in two bundles - 100 notes in one bundle and 50 notes in another bundle. The two bundles were kept inside a polythene and stacked beneath the clothes in the airbag.
“On questioning the passenger, he revealed that the fake notes were obtained from Kaliachak in Malda. The passenger further told the investigators that a man had procured the fake notes from Bangladesh and gave him the counterfeit in West Bengal’s Malda,” a DRI official said.
Sources said after demonetisation, Malda district has become the prime entry point of fake currencies from Bangladesh. The security agencies have stated that printing bases for fake notes have been set up in Bangladesh and several security features of Rs 2,000 denomination notes have been copied in Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN). The fake notes, seized by Bhubaneswar DRI officials, have portraits of Mahatma Gandhi and their colour pattern also matches with Rs 2,000 denomination notes.
The passenger confessed that he had planned to exchange the fake notes in Bengaluru mainly by purchasing garments and exchanging the counterfeit currencies with small-scale traders and vendors. The man was apprehended and further investigation into the matter is on.