16 December,2011 11:11 AM IST | | PTI
There has been a phenomenal rise in the circulation and smuggling of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) in Bihar and police and DRI sleuths have seized FICN of face value of 41.40 lakh during 2011 so far, police said.
The figure this year is far more than FICN of face value of Rs 18.69 lakh seized during the corresponding period last year. "Circulation of FICN in the state has become a challenge for the state police, but the situation is not so alarming. We want to take more deterrent measures to curb it," a senior police official said.
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths had on December 2 seized FICN of face value of Rs 20 lakh in denomination of Rs 1000 from a bus near Piprakaothi in East Champaran district on Indo-Nepal borders following a tip off, DRI sources said. An alleged smuggler Ashraful Alam, a resident of Mohanpur village of Malda district of West Bengal was arrested in the incident.
He was allegedly smuggling the notes to East Champaran from Bangladesh, the sources said. In another incident on October 24 Patna police along with special Task Force (STF) recovered FICN of face value of Rs 57,000 and apprehended four persons allegedly involved in printing fake notes.
A bigger haul of Rs ten lakh fake notes, ten cell phones, 10 passports and six Nepali SIM cards were seized from a person and his accomplice from East Champaran district on October 13. The person, Pramod Kushwaha who was arrested had confessed to the police that he had been dealing in fake notes with the help of a Pakistani national, they said.
DRI sources giving details of seizures said on September 24 police had recovered FICN of face value of Rs 75500 and arrested two smugglers from Makhdumpur in Bihar's Jehanabad district. In Nawada district, police arrested three members of an inter-state gang allegedly involved in circulating FICN from Rajauli on September 19. Rs 17000 fake notes were seized from them.
Fake notes of Rs 500 denomination of face value of Rs 50,000 was seized from Bastul village of Katihar district a few days earlier on September 10 and two smugglers were arrested. Poice seized Rs 25000 fake notes and arrested two persons at Kunwardah village in Bhojpur district on July 20, besides conducting another operation at Gauria village in the district where it recovered FICN of face value of Rs 30,000 and arrested two persons in May.
Rs 26000 fake notes were seized from Madarpur Mohalla of Jehanabad and a person along with a pistol and three live cartridges was arrested on July 11. The same month police seized FICN of face value of Rs 2.9 lakh from a house at Pipra village in Bihar's West Champaran district. In 2009, police and other agencies have seized fake currency notes at the face value of 13.04 lakh in Bihar.
