Fake currency: Operatives could have terror links

The Kerala Police think that some of the eight persons from West Bengal, arrested the other day at Neyyattinkara near Thiruvananthapuram with Bangladesh-produced counterfeit Indian currency notes for Rs 2,19,000 could be having connections with some terror organization.

The police reached this conclusion, though they were still refusing to confirm this, after officials of the Special Branch, NIA and the RAW questioned the currency-couriers. The sleuths were of the opinion three of the eight persons arrested could have got terror training before coming to Kerala.

The police had arrested the team from West Bengal after a footwear shop owner near Parassala informed them about a counterfeit currency note given by some of the members of the team. In the follow-up searches, the police recovered Rs-1000 counterfeit currencies worth Rs 47,000 from the team and the notes for the remaining amount from two lodges in Thiruvananthapuram.

The arrested persons were identified as Imam’ul Haq (19), Rija’ul Haq (20), Siraj’ul Haq (22), Zakir Ali (19), Kamir’ul Islam (20), Asum Alam (19), Ruhul amin (22) and Mujeeb Rahman (20). Among them, Imam’ul Haq and Siraj’ul Uaq were said to be the team leaders. The police are now examining the details of the calls made from the mobiles of the team members.

From the interrogation, the police learned that the operatives were supposed to return to the racket’s masters clean Indian currency notes for Rs 60,000 for every Rs-100,000 fake currency notes they were given. The operatives could pocket the remaining Rs 40,000. The police learned that the team had sent Rs 62,000 to an address in West Bengal.

The arrested persons told the police that they were in the “business” for the past two years and that they had roots in all Kerala districts and in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The police also warned banks on the basis of the information that the racket had distributed counterfeit currency across the State.

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