Malda a conduit from Bangladesh for circulation of fake notes

VISAKHAPATNAM: THE arrest of three persons of two fake currency gangs has once again brought to light the rampant circulation of counterfeit Indian currency notes from West Bengal. But what worries the police is the striking similarities of the counterfeit notes with the original currency, making it tough to detect the fake ones with the naked eye.

“The fake notes match the original ones up to 90 per cent. We need to know every minute aspect of the original notes. Who would tilt the note to certain angle to check the authenticity of the currency notes, given the busy schedule,” said a police officer.

According to police sources, locals from Malda area of West Bengal, located on the Indo-Bangladesh border, have been procuring the FICN from Bangladesh.

Police sources said that once the FICN is printed, they would inform some agents in Malda. “The gang do not want their people to be caught in Bangladesh. Instead they sell them to the agents in India,” said a police official.

As per Visakhapatnam police, an accused named Ali supplies the fake currency to locals and is involved in many cases. It is learnt that the agents from Malda buy around fake currency with a face value of 1 lakh for 10,000 to 15,000. The agents in turn sell the FICN to others from various parts of India at  30,000 to 50,000.

The police are on the tenterehooks with the spurt in such offences.  “It is a long chain. One offender goes to Malda and procures the FICN. He does it twice or thrice before he is nabbed. Again another takes his place. As the chain continues, new people are taken in,”  City Task Force (CTF) inspector K  Mallikarjuna Rao said, not ruling out that the offenders procuring the FICN for kingpins.