Member of fake Indian currency note syndicate arrested

New Delhi: A key member of a syndicate supplying fake Indian currency note (FICN) has been arrested from the Anand Vihar railway station here, police said on Sunday.

They said 29-year-old Abdul Rahim, a resident of West Bengal’s Malda, has been smuggling fake notes from Bangladesh for a long time.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said for the last few months, they have been receiving inputs about the Malda-based syndicate involved in smuggling FICNs through the Indo-Bangladesh border into Delhi and adjoining states.

“Based on a specific input, a trap was laid and our team nabbed Rahim from Anand Vihar railway station on April 16. He was waiting near the station to deliver a huge consignment of FICNs to his Delhi-based contact.

“FICNs with a face value of Rs 8 lakhs in the denomination of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 was recovered from his possession,” the officer said.

Interrogation revealed that in 2018, while working as a mason at the house of a man named Nasruddin, Rahim was asked to deliver fake Indian currency notes to make easy money. He initially earned Rs 3,000 per delivery, the officer said.

“Nasruddin used to collect FICNs from suppliers based near the Indo-Bangladesh border, who smuggled them from Bangladesh. After sometime, Rahim started accompanying Nasruddin for collecting FICN from the Indo-Bangladesh border.

“They both collected several consignments of FICN from there and further supplied to their associates based in different parts of India during past three years. For the last few months, Rahim was getting Rs one lakh of FICN as his share on delivery of Rs eight lakhs or more to their different contacts,” Yadav said.

During his visit to Bangladesh, Rahim also came in contact with a man named Tiku and started smuggling FICNs from him, he said.

During the lockdown period, Nasruddin, Rahim and other members of their network could not smuggle FICNs. However after the lockdown was over, both of them collected huge amount of FICN and supplied them with the help of their contacts in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of India, the officer said.