Manas Bannerjee
MALDA, Nov. 19: Even as the state government grapples with the menace of fake Indian currency flooding the districts, including Kolkata, evidence has emerged indicating that Chapai Nawabgunj is one of many centres in Bangladesh where counterfeit Indian notes are printed.
According to BSF and Intelligence sources, the kingpin of the fake currency manufacturing unit is a Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader who allegedly has links with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.
The sources said interrogation of some fake currency couriers hailing from Bangladesh revealed that the network of "agents" who enjoy the patronage of a few Malda-based political leaders are directly linked to the BNP leader. Chapai Nawabgunj district is across from Malda and the numerous entry points on the porous international border, serve as a corridor for the inflow of fake currency.
Over the past couple of years, Malda and adjoining Murshidabad have become important transit points through which high-denomination fake currency notes are smuggled in for "distribution" and eventual circulation in the Indian market.
In the past five weeks, the BSF's 108st battalion, stationed in Kaliachak, intercepted eight Indians, including a woman, who tried to sneak into India carrying over Rs 4 lakh in fake currency notes, all of Rs. 500 or Rs. 1,000 denomination.
Earlier, fake Indian currency would be manufactured at printing presses in Pakistan from where they would be transported to Nepal for smuggling into India. Over the past few years, some districts in Bangladesh appear to have become the printing centres. The BSF has been able to identify Chapai Nawabgunj, but most arrested "couriers" belong so far down the hierarchy that they do not have knowledge of the printing places, Mr JSND Prasad, commandant of the 108th battalion said.
The BSF claims to have notified the Bangladesh Rifles about the fake currency menace, but so far there has been no crackdown against these manufacturing units. On its part, the BSF has identified Mahabbatpur, Hajinagar and Chori-Anantapur villages in Kaliachak block where some residents are actively involved in the fake currency racket. In the recent past police from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, working in tandem with Malda police, conducted raids in and around Kaliachak to nab these agents.
In December 2007, a UP police team arrested a woman and her husband from Kaliachak and seized Rs. 12 lakh in fake currency. In February 2007, on a tip off from the Jharkhand police, Malda police arrested a man and seized fake currency worth Rs.7,62,500 from his house in Baishnabnagar.
Since March this year Malda police has arrested 10 people and recovered Rs. 11.50 lakh fake notes. (END)
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