Fake notes back after demonetisation; Malda emerges as epicentre

The first arrest was made on Jan 23rd when 16-year-old daily wage labourer Piyarul Sheikh was caught with only one fake note of Rs 2000.

Picture for representational purpose only

Kolkata,UPDATED: Feb 13, 2017 21:30 IST

Malda, a district located along the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, has emerged as the epicentre of a 'fake currency earthquake' which is all set to shake the base of the government's promise of bringing an end to fake currency menace.

BSF along with other security agencies have made three major arrests in just a fortnight. The quality of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) was so good that even the authorities had a tough time in differentiating the real from the fake.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW :

The first arrest was made on Jan 23rd when 16-year-old daily wage labourer Piyarul Sheikh was caught with only one fake note of Rs 2000.
The second one was caught this month on Feb 4th when two Rs 2000 fake notes were seized from Digambar Mondal, a member of the Kaliachowk 's third block panchayat samity.
And again on February 8, Azizur Rahman was arrested with forty Rs 2000 denomination fake notes. He is a resident of Malda but arrested in Murshidabad's Chapraghat area.
The 26-year-old was interrogated today jointly by the National Investigation Agency and other security agencies.
Murshidabad SP Mukesh had earlier said that Rahman was going to deliver FICN to someone else before being caught. "The source from where they came from originally is yet unknown. The investigation on the same has begun," he had said.
Sources speak of FICN traffickers trying to use innocent people, who are not too familiar with the new currency, by giving them samples of fake notes for testing whether the copy is good enough to dupe people.
The fact that the Indo-Bangla border in Malda stretches to 176 km, of which 30 per cent is unfenced and many parts are riverine borders, makes the entry of FICN to India easy.
Due to this reason there has always been a high security alert in the bordering area of Malda, but after demonetisation hit the market, the activities of fake note traffickers had come down. Now once again it has begun to resurface.BSF, central and state intelligence agencies have started interrogation of Digambar to get hold of the source from where the fake currency racket is going on.
It has become difficult for the intelligence to track every corner as some a loophole always pops up.
But it is being suspected that the fake notes that are getting circulated are not made in India. Most of the notes have been made on instructions from Pakistan but the route chosen has been via Nepal or Bangladesh.
The porous and riverine border between India and Bangladesh comes as big geographical advantage for smuggling these fake notes into the Indian territory.
Most of the residents in the border districts hail from minority community but speak Bengali, which makes it even more easier to cross into either sides of the country because of cultural similarities.
Whatever has surfaced so far in the case is just the tip of an iceberg.