Fake notes flowing into India

The currency is printed in small printing units in Islamabad. The law enforcement agencies have got vital clues regarding the involvement of ISI in the counterfeit currency racket operating in India. They also suspect the role of dreaded don, Dawood Ibrahim.

“We have no documentary proof to substantiate this. However, we have some specific intelligence connecting Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI to the counterfeit currency racket based in Pakistan and the Middle East, which releases crores worth of fake notes to India through Colombo,” a senior official of a law enforcement agency told TOI.

The racket is so well-organized that they source the paper from a company in London. This is the same place from which the Indian government is also procuring the paper. They then duplicate the Indian rupee to utmost perfection. “How they managed to spot the same company which supplies the paper to us is still a mystery. They also managed to produce notes which are almost similar to our currency . The laymen cannot distinguish the fakes produced in Pakistan from the original. Even officials from RBI have found it difficult to distinguish between these fakes and originals,” the official said.

Several reports of seizure of Pakistan-produced fake notes in Tamil Nadu and Kerala indicate a large scale flow of fake currency to the Indian market. “The standard operational procedure of the racket is to route the fake currency consignments first to the Middle East and then to Colombo before sending it to major entry points like Chennai and Kochi. The currency notes with face value of several crores are sent in one consignment to Colombo. The racket has storage facilities in Colombo. So they store the bundles there and send that to India in small consignments. They usually send around Rs 25 lakh worth notes in one consignment,” another official said.

The racket mainly uses the erstwhile gold carriers to smuggle fake currency. “The carriers once used by gold smugglers have a good base in the Middle East. These carriers are now low on business as gold smuggling has come down heavily following duty relaxation. So the racket finds it easy to recruit these carriers to smuggle counterfeit currency .

The carriers are not really bothered about the stuff they carry. They are only interested in the money they get,” another official said.

According to sources, a good number of carriers who are used by the fake currency racket belong to Kasargod and Malapuram districts in Kerala. They predominantly use the false bottom concealment method to smuggle the fake currency.

“The trade secret is that when they bring fake currency worth Rs 25 lakh, they have one or two lakh worth of original notes kept on top of the bundle to mislead the enforcement agencies,” an official said.

If the carriers manage to come out of the airport without any trouble , they hand over the notes to the agents waiting outside the airport. The money is then taken to the respective destination via road. The money is mainly used in real estate business, where the circulation of black money is very high.

“In most of the real estate deals, about 50 percent of the transaction amount is given as black money. The agents use the fake currency to pay this 50 percent. So it is difficult for the person who has been cheated by the gang to approach the police, even after realising that the currency paid to him was fake,” the official added.

HOW COUNTERFEIT NOTES ENTER INDIA

Intelligence agencies have specific information that Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI are involved in the counterfeit currency racket based in the Middle East and Pakistan. This racket releases crores worth of fake notes to India through Colombo