NIA arrests man wanted in fake currency case

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency on Sunday arrested a man for his alleged involvement in smuggling Fake Indian Currency Notes, an official said.

The accused has been identified as Jakir Sekh of West Bengal”s Purba Bardhaman district. He is an associate of Bangladeshi FICN supplier Munshi.

Two mobile phones were seized during a search at Sekh’s premises, the official said.

The case relates to the seizure of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) with a face value of Rs 4,01,000 from the possession of one Golam Martuja on January 8 last year by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence’s (DRI) regional unit in West Bengal’s Siliguri.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had registered the case under sections of IPC and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in March last year, and filed a charge sheet against four people before a special NIA court in Siliguri.

According to the probe agency, Sekh and the other charge-sheeted accused were part of a terrorist gang comprising smugglers, couriers and distributors of FICN. They had entered into a criminal conspiracy in association with other known and unknown accused to smuggle and circulate high quality counterfeit Indian paper currency notes to cause damage to the monetary stability of India.

The accused used to receive FICN from Bangladesh-based smugglers through multiple couriers. They used to then circulate the money and channelise the proceeds to the Bangladesh-based smugglers through different couriers, the official said, adding that further investigation to identify the transnational linkages in the case is on.