Increase in smuggling of fake currency notes reported in TN

From the borders of eastern states of the country the Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) are being smuggled into Tamil Nadu especially in Chennai. Observing the increase in the smuggling the CB-CID and the city police have decided to carry out joint operation to crack down on these smuggling networks.

T Rajendran, Chennai City Police Commissioner told Express, “We have decided to send two special teams consisting of officers from the city police and CB-CID to Jharkhand and West Bengal from where most FICNs are smuggled into Chennai.”

In the last 10 months the Reserve Bank of India, has referred around 247 FICN cases including 207 cases from Chennai to the CB-CID, the nodal agency for prevention of smuggling of FICN. N Mohan, DSP, CB-CID, CC Wing informed that in all the 11 cases reported in Chennai, one common pattern has been found that all the seized fake notes were of high quality in the denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, that too with genuine features.

He said, it is believed these high quality notes have been printed outside India and are being smuggled into the country by a network through the permeable borders of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Jammu and Kashmir, and added that all the persons arrested in this connection in Chennai belong to these states. On Wednesday police had arrested two persons from Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Although no concrete evidence is available right now regarding the networks’ linked to the international smugglers particularly from Pakistan, Bangladesh and China, as that in custody were mostly laborers and small-time street vendors. Archana Ramasundaram, ADGP, CB-CID pointed out, “In order to ascertain the link of ISI agents in smuggling FICNs into Tamil Nadu, we have sent a letter to the Uttar Pradesh police to provide information that they have procured from an ISI agent’s son Javed Siddiqui alias Vicky Manihar.”

Mohan added, “We have asked for the prefix code and serial numbers of the notes seized from Siddiqui. If those details match with the prefix and serial numbers seized from the accused in Chennai, then we can prove that it was smuggled from Pakistan.’’