The Delhi Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) after the currency chest managers of 12 banks reported that fake Indian currency notes amounting to Rs 4.21 crore have been deposited across the various branches of these 12 banks in the national Capital. In an audit exercise, conducted between July 1 till December 31 in 2017, 10 banks found huge wads of illegal currency notes deposited, while the two other banks in their auditing exercise for the fiscal year January 1 till December 2017 reported the same incidents.
Out of these 12 banks, Standard Chartered Bank reported the maximum number of fake currency notes (58,900) valuing Rs 2.16 crore. On the other hand, the least fake notes have been deposited at the Corporation Bank.
Confirming the report, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Dehi) Madhur Verma told The Pioneer, “We received written complaints from 12 banks in the second week of February this year. Since the Parliament Street hosts a repository of the main branches of these 12 banks, we have seized the fake currency notes and sent them to forensic laboratory in Nagpur. Apart from that, we have prepared a list of people who collected the cash at the branches and will start questioning them soon.”
A senior police officer, privy to the investigation said that the discovery about the fake currency was reported after the banks in their six to one year audit report found glaring discrepancies.
On February 14 and 15, the currency chest managers from the 12 banks submitted written complaints at the Parliament Street Police Station that banks such as Central Bank of India, Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, Canara Bank, Union Bank and a few others found that fake notes have been deposited with them.
A senior bank official of the Union Bank told The Pioneer, “There are several factors based on which we distinguish the original currency from the fake. One is that micro lettering of the numbers such as Rs 500 or Rs 2000 is not done on the fake notes, a special kind of ink is used in preparing fake currency notes, a method called Intaglio printing (techniques in which the image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink). In the case of fake notes, the photo of Mahatma Gandhi, RBI seal and the Governor’s signature appears to be superimposed rather than printed. The other factors include security thread, water mark, latent image.
A senior police officer explained how FICN is pumped into India from Pakistan through Bangladesh via Malda region in West Bengal.
The Delhi Police Special Cell, earlier this month, arrested a man involved in a syndicate that circulated fake Indian currency notes printed in Pakistan.
The syndicate, which is reportedly based in Malda of West Bengal, pumps in fake currency notes through India-Bangladesh border. A total of Rs 2 lakh, in fake Rs 2000 denominations, was recovered from the person.
The accused, Mohammad Mumtaz Ansari, revealed that the counterfeit money was printed in Pakistan. The recovered fake currency notes were found to be of high quality which cannot be detected easily by the naked eyes of a layman. The paper’s quality, printing, colour and thread mark appear to be genuine, but some security features are missing. Some notes have same serial numbers.
Talking about the fake currency notes deposited in the 12 banks, a senior police officer gave out the break them of the total 4.21 crore fake currency notes.