E-Paper
Fake currency: NIA registers fresh case; fourth probe on foreign soil
This is NIA’s fourth investigation on foreign soil and its second in Dhaka, since the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, was amended in August 2019, empowering it to probe terrorist activities outside India if citizens or the country’s interests are targeted.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a fresh case to investigate use of Bangladeshi soil by Pakistan to smuggle high quality fake Indian currency notes (FICN) into India with an aim to fund terror activities, officials familiar with the case said on Thursday.
This is NIA’s fourth investigation on foreign soil and its second in Dhaka, since the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, was amended in August 2019, empowering it to probe terrorist activities outside India if citizens or the country’s interests are targeted.
Officials familiar with the probe said Dhaka metropolitan police had arrested smuggler Fatema Akhar Api (35) and her associate Abu Taleb on November 26, 2021, and had recovered FICN with a face value of ₹7.34 crore in the denomination of ₹500 notes from them.
Initial investigation by Dhaka police has revealed that high quality FICN is being printed in Pakistan and shipped to Bangladesh for further smuggling into India. Two international smugglers working for the ISI – Sultan and Safi, both Pakistani citizens -- have been identified as the key players in the syndicate, which has been tasked to pump huge amount of fake currency into Indian cities for carrying out terror activities, said an official familiar with developments.
One of the routes being used by Sultan and Safi is suspected to be Sri Lanka.
The NIA registered an FIR on December 30 in the matter under criminal conspiracy and sections related to smuggling of counterfeit currency and officials are in touch with authorities in Dhaka to gather more details.
Earlier, the agency took up the investigation into the March 25, 2020 attack on a gurudwara in Kabul, in which 27 Sikh devotees including an Indian national were killed. Its second case for conducting a probe on foreign soil was registered in December 2020 against the Gurpatwant Singh Pannun-led Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) for organising protests at Indian missions in various countries including the US, the UK, Germany, Canada, etc.
The third case, registered in September last year, related to a fake currency smuggling racket running out of Dhaka in which two Pakistani nationals were arrested with FICN worth ₹46 lakh.
According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, FICN worth ₹92 crore was detected and seized across India in 2020.
Over the last two years, NIA has investigated about two dozen cases related to fake currency , of which, 12 cases pertain to seizure of high-quality Indian counterfeit currency.
