KOCHI: As the nation marks the third anniversary of demonetisation on Friday, counterfeit notes are still actively being pumped into the state, even though the number of cases reported is on a declining trend. As demonetisation was expected to put a tab on counterfeit notes in circulation, during the post-currency ban era, more fake notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 face value have been recovered in Kerala.
As per the data accessed from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the fake currency notes having the face value of Rs 1,72,73,110 were seized in Kerala from January 2017 to June 2019. As many as 22,642 counterfeit notes were recovered by various agencies during the same period. Interestingly, currencies of Rs 2,000 denomination having a face value of Rs 99,26,000 have been recovered since 2017. On the other hand counterfeit notes of Rs 500 denomination worth Rs 7,02,75,000 were also seized by multiple agencies after demonetisation in the state.
However, national agencies are more relieved as the flow of high-quality counterfeits mostly printed abroad to Kerala has reduced since 2017. “In the post-demonetisation era, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered only one counterfeit currency case in Kerala in which fake notes, which were suspected to be brought through Bangladesh, were seized in Thrissur. Now, mostly inter-state and local rackets are operating in the state. In most of the counterfeit currency cases registered in Kerala, mostly local gangs are involved in printing notes using colour printers,” an official with the Ministry of Home Affairs said.
On Wednesday, police detected a case in which two persons were arrested with counterfeit notes having a face value of around Rs 40 lakh. All the seized fake currency notes were of Rs 2,000 denomination. “The gang involved in the case has been active in the state. The same gang was suspected to be behind two cases reported in 2018 and September this year. They used to create fake currency notes using normal colour printers. The quality of the notes was not high. The gang first operated from Bengaluru, but later switched their base. We will take two persons into custody for interrogation and track other members of the racket,” Irinjalakuda DySP Famous Varghese said.
Customs Commissioner Sumit Kumar opined that impact on demonetisation on the circulation of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) cannot be judged based on the number of seizures. “Only RBI will have a real picture of demonetisation impact on FICN. The number of seizures and the actual number of fake currencies in circulation will be way different,” he said.
Number of counterfeit notes seized in Kerala
2015: 5,449
2016: 3,006
2017: 18,498
2018: 3,581
2019(till June): 563
Face value of seized counterfeit currency
2015: I39,61,540
2016: I22,49,300
2017: I1,30,63,540
2018: I34,59,070
2019 (till June):
I 7,50,500
E2,000 denomination notes recovered
2016: 2
2017: 2,937
2018: 1,463
2019 (till June): 317
E500 denomination notes recovered
2016: 963
2017: 610
2018: 487
2019(till June): 228
Scary statistics
Currencies of C2,000 denomination having a face value of C99.26 lakh have been recovered since 2017.