Smuggling fake Indian currency notes: Key member arrested

A key member of an organisation supplying fake Indian currency note (FICN) has been arrested from the Anand Vihar railway station in New Delhi, police said today.

29-year-old Abdul Rahim, a resident of West Bengal’s Malda, has been smuggling fake notes from Bangladesh for a long time.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said for the last few months, they have been collecting information about the Malda-based organisation involved in smuggling FICNs through the Indo-Bangladesh border into Delhi and adjoining states.

“Based on a specific input, a trap was laid and our team arrested Rahim from Anand Vihar railway station on April 16. He was waiting near the station to deliver a huge consignment of FICNs to his Delhi-based contact,” the officer said.

“FICNs with a face value of ? 8 lakhs in the denomination of ? 2,000 and ? 500 was recovered from his possession,” he added.

Questioning unveiled that in 2018, while working as a brick mason at the house of a man named Nasruddin, Rahim was asked to deliver fake Indian currency notes to make easy money. He initially earned ? 3,000 per delivery, the officer said.

“Nasruddin used to collect FICNs from suppliers based near the Indo-Bangladesh border, who smuggled them from Bangladesh. After some time, Rahim started accompanying Nasruddin for collecting FICN from the Indo-Bangladesh border,” Mr Yadav said.

“They both collected several consignments of FICN from there and further supplied to their associates based in different parts of India during past three years. For the last few months, Rahim was getting ? 1 lakh of FICN as his share on delivery of ? 8 lakhs or more to their different contacts,” Mr Yadav said.

At the time of his visit to Bangladesh, Rahim also came in connection with a man named Tiku and started smuggling FICNs from him, he said.

When the lockdown period started, Nasruddin, Rahim and other members of their network could not smuggle FICNs. However, after the lockdown was over, both of them collected a huge amount of FICN and supplied them with the help of their contacts in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of India, the officer said.