NIA special court gives varying jail terms to 3 FICN racketeers in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: A special NIA court here has sentenced three people and given them varying jail terms while also imposing a fine for smuggling Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), an official said on Thursday.

The court pronounced the judgement on Wednesday in the case pertaining to the seizure of FICN with a face value of Rs 6,84,000 in the denomination of Rs 2000 from four accused — Mohammed Sajjad Ali, MG Raju, Gangadhar Ramappa Kolkar and Vanitha from various parts of Bengaluru city in March 2018, the NIA official said.

During the investigation, the NIA found the involvement of four more people — Vijay from Karnataka, and Sabiruddin, Abdul Kadir and Jahiruddin from Malda, West Bengal. Vijay, Sabiruddin and Kadir were arrested while Jahiruddin is still absconding.

After completing the investigation, the NIA filed a charge-sheet against four arrested accused Ali, Raju, Kolkar and Vanitha on November 3, 2018, and subsequently, supplementary charge-sheets were filed against Kadir, Sabiruddin and Vijay.

On December 1 this year, the NIA special court framed charges against all the seven charge-sheeted accused of the offences under sections of the IPC.

Ali, Raju and Kadir pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 6 years imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 10,000; five years imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 5000; and 2 years imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 5000 respectively, the NIA official said.

The trial against the remaining four charge-sheeted accused is underway, the official said.

The investigation against the absconding accused Jahiruddin is underway, the official added.