Three weeks after they advised the police to be on a lookout for fake Indian currency notes, which may be in circulation at the Capital’s bustling wholesale markets, the Intelligence Bureau’s (IB) warning has proved correct.
More than 400 counterfeit notes in different denominations and
amounting to more than R1,70,900 have emerged at a single bank branch located in Fatehpuri near Chandni Chowk.
“The counterfeit notes, as many as 254 of which are in the denomination of R500, emerged at the Indian Bank’s Fatehpuri Branch on February 1. We were approached three days later. In all, 406 fake notes have been brought to our notice,” said a senior police officer.
On January 21, Hindustan Times had reported on an IB input which had emerged after the seizure of fake currency notes to the tune of R2.84 crore by the Special Cell from a warehouse in southwest Delhi’s Dabri.
Suspected to have been printed at a government printing press in Karachi and smuggled into the country through train at the behest of wanted counterfeiter Iqbal Kana, the IB had asked the police to keep an eye on his smuggling network that spans from Karachi to Chandni Chowk.
“While most notes are in denominations of R500, 32 notes are in the denomination of R1000, 118 are in denominations of R100 and two fake notes of R50 were handed over to us after being detected by the bank,” the officer said.
Kana, who shifted base to Pakistan’s Lahore in 2001 and is suspected to push at least R1,600 crores of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) into the country every year, has a tremendous presence in Jama Masjid and Sadar Bazar.
He is originally a resident of Kairana in UP’s Muzaffarnagar and operates a fancy items shop in Lahore —mainly dealing with ‘Savaris’ or frequent couriers to Pakistan from the Muzaffarnagar area.