Probe into fake note incident

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Nov. 8: The chairman of the Malda District Central Co-operative Bank Mr Tushar Bhattachar-jee has issued an order to conduct an internal inquiry after the detection of a fake 500 rupee note in a sealed packet. On Tuesday, a cashier of the UBI Ne-taji Market branch had detected a fake 500 rupee note from a packet containing 100 notes of the same denomination made by the MDCCB at the time of transaction. On receiving the information and a report published in The Statesman on Wednesday, the chairman has officially alerted all the branches of the district to keep a close watch, before receiving notes from the people. He also informed the concerned authorities to become cautious about the menace. Speaking to The Statesman, Mr Bhattacharjee said: “We have star-ted an internal inquiry into the incident to detect how the fake note was put in a sealed packet, and the person responsible for this.” “We have alerted the staff to keep a vigil on the situation, and check notes seriously, so that such an incident is not repeated.” Mr Bhattacharjee said: “We had also received a fake note from a packet given by the State Bank of India.” A caution order has been issued to all the branches as the district is close to the Bangladesh border. There is a route by which fake currency notes are circulated. On the other hand, the Malda traders’ body has criticised the incident. According to them, the bank has a responsibility to check the circulation of fake notes in the open market. The traders’ body chief Mr Jayanta Kundu said that if the circulation of fake currency notes continues, they would start an agitation against the bankers. Traders detected fake currencies in the sealed packet made by private banks in English Bazaar town recently. A trader said: “If any dishonest cashier of a bank regularly puts fake currency notes of Rs 500 or Rs 1000 in a packet, he would earn a huge amount of money. The bankers should keep a watch on the cashier to maintain their reputation. The Malda police and the border security forces have seized fake currency notes, along the border in the last few months.