New Delhi, Jan 13: Delhi Police made one of its biggest haul of fake currency totalling Rs 6 crore from two mini-trucks hidden inside cloth consignments in Dabri area on Thursday.
The fake Indian currency notes are suspected to have been printed in Karachi Government Printing Press in Pakistan, police officials said.
The police believe the consignment was smuggled from Pakistan to India through the India-Nepal border. Three men allegedly involved in the racket have been arrested.
“The seizure of such a large number of fake currency notes in a single case is unusual, not the continuing attempt to circulate fake notes,” a union home ministry official said
Pakistani agencies push fake currency into India to achieve the twin objective of funding terrorism and trying to destabilise the Indian economy,” he added.
The fake Indian currency notes were concealed in 33 cloth bundles on two small trucks parked outside a warehouse in Dabri.
“The seizure is one of the biggest hauls in the country and the currency seems to have been sent from a foreign country. It looks as good as the original,” he said.
Sources said the consignment was sent by Iqbal Kana, a native of Shamli in western Uttar Pradesh who now lives in Lahore and regularly pushes fakes into India on instructions of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
Today's single haul of fake currency from south-west Delhi is almost double the total amount of counterfeit notes city police seized in the past five years.
The initial count of today's seizure from Dabri suggests a haul of fake notes with a face value of over Rs six crore, which is double of the total of counterfeit notes with a face value of Rs 3.06 crore Delhi Police recovered in 210 cases the past five years.
Police, in the past five years, seized fake currency with a face value of Rs 3,06,36,790 USD 5,800 and 2,000 Euro with 2007 topping the list with counterfeit notes with a face value of Rs 1.01 crore seized in 45 cases.
Last year saw the least recovery in the past five years with fake notes with a face value of Rs 28.20 lakh being recovered in 44 cases.
“Today's seizure is one of the biggest seizures of fake currency in the country,” Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta said.
According to Delhi Police statistics, 2009 saw the second highest seizure with fake notes with a face value of Rs 88.39 lakh in 47 cases followed by 2008 (fake notes with a face value of Rs 59.19 lakh) and and 2010 (fake notes of Rs 28.84 lakh in 33 cases).
An analysis shows that Rs 100 note appears to be the favourite among counterfeiters as it is the most seized currency in the past five years.
Though 41,710 counterfeit notes of Rs ten denomination was seized in 2010, police officials say it was an abberation and Rs 100 note is the most counterfeited note. Police figures show that 34,606 fake notes of Rs 100 denomination, 28,536 notes of Rs 500 and 12,167 counterfeit notes of Rs 1,000 denomination were seized in the past five years.
For Rs 50 denomination, the number was 6,492, for Rs 20 it was 257 while not a single Rs five fake note was recovered in the past five years.
This year, Police's Crime Branch recovered fake currency with a face value of Rs 91,000 were recovered and two persons were arrested.
Fake note suppliers in Delhi and other places used to buy fake notes at a rate of 50-60 per cent of the face value of the counterfeit note and used to sell it for 70-80 per cent of the face value, the official said.
“Seized counterfeit Indian currency notes have most of the security features of genuine currency notes and for a man on the street it would be difficult to tell the difference,” he said.
While the police are yet to ascertain the route taken this time, the ISI has been pumping fake currency notes through Bangladesh, Nepal and by sea.
Sometimes, even roads have been used. On October 18 last year, fake Indian currency totalling Rs 1 crore was seized from a Mercedes Benz vehicle originating from Turkey and intercepted at the India-Pakistan border on specific intelligence inputs.
“The reason why the notes seem almost identical to real Indian currency is because we suspect that they were printed at a government printing press in Pakistan,” an officer said.
Meanwhile, in Ferozepur, Punjab on Thursday, police said it has seized Rs 2.3 lakh fake Indian currency notes from one Makhan Singh, while investigating into a Rs 25 crore drug seizure on Jan 5.
SSP Ferozepur Hardev Mann said, Pakistani sim cards and cellphones were also seized from the accused.
