U.P.: NIA court awards 10-year RI to fake note case accused

A Lucknow court sentenced Babloo to 10 years for involvement in a fake currency case linked to a 2019 seizure of ₹1.79 lakh in counterfeit notes.

The Lucknow-based special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday sentenced 10 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) to a key accused in a Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) case, confirmed NIA officials.

An NIA official said the convict was also fined ₹20,000 each for the offences. (For Representation)

In a press note, a senior NIA official said the court has convicted a Sitapur resident Babloo and pronounced three 10-year RI sentences each under u/s 489B, 120B of the IPC, and sections 16 & 18 of UA(P) Act. He said all sentences will run concurrently.

The official said the convict was also fined ₹20,000 each for the offences and will be liable to further six months of simple imprisonment in case of default.

He is the fourth accused to be convicted in the case. The case relates to recovery and seizure of high quality FICNs by Uttar Pradesh ATS on November 25, 2019, from three accused, identified as Phulchand, Aminul Islam and one juvenile. The trio were intercepted with the 298 notes, having total face value of ₹1,79,000, and a case was initially registered at ATS police station at Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, before being taken over by NIA in January 2020.

The official said the investigation revealed that the accused had conspired to smuggle, procure and keep high quality FICNs in their possession. The notes were being supplied from Malda, West Bengal, and further circulated and supplied to various persons across the state.

Accused Aminul Islam was the main conspirator from Malda (WB) along with his associates. He used to bring the consignments of FICN from Malda and the same were received by the other accused.

Babloo was actively engaged in trafficking of high quality of FICN, sourced from West Bengal, and he was also found to in regular contact with accused Aminul Islam and Phulchand, as per the NIA investigations.

The Juvenile Justice Board, Lucknow, had in January 2022 convicted and sentenced the juvenile accused in the case to 2 years, 1 month 10 days. Upon pleading guilty, Phulchand and Aminul Islam were also sentenced to 5 years RI with fine in January this year.