Currency flowing into India from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka

The Mumbai police crime branch is trying to find the root of counterfeit currency circulating in Mumbai. Officials said it was not only an act that would affect the economy of the country but it was also presumed to be used for terror activities.

When asked what steps the crime branch plans to take this year to curb the menace of fake currency, its chief, additional director general Atulchandra Kulkarni said, “We are looking at all the offences of counterfeit currency. We are sending our teams to the borders. We want to get to the root of the crime.”

It is learnt from sources in the Maharashtra police that the channels of counterfeit currency are well established. The fake currency was coming in from India-Bangladesh border, India-Nepal border and from Sri Lanka.

“While it is easy to bring in money through porous borders, the country shares with Bangladesh and Nepal, the fake currency is brought even in small boats from Sri Lanka. Fake currency is even brought in by air,” said a senior police official.

A senior official on strict condition of anonymity also said that high quality Indian counterfeit currency was being printed in neighbouring Pakistan also.

Corroborating this, former special secretary, cabinet secretariat V. Balachandran said, “The ISI in Pakistan is creating trouble for our country in three ways. One is spying and espionage, the second is funding terrorist organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and thirdly creating nuisance by circulating counterfeit currency in the bordering regions. However, its very difficult to say that the proceeds of counterfeit currency is used for terrorism as the terrorists get a lot of funding separately.”

“We had busted a fake counterfeit currency case around a decade ago when a Chotta Shakeel aide was caught brining in fake currency. About 10 persons were arrested in the case,” said a police inspector. Shakeel is a close aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, who is believed to be in Pakistan.