Despite demonetisation dealing a blow to the fake notes circulation in Odisha, the real danger of the circulation of high denomination fake notes is still posing a big threat as Odisha police have seized fake currencies valuing a whopping over Rs 36 lakh during the period from January to July this year, which by the way is the highest-ever seizure of fake notes in State since 2010.
Significantly, West Bengal, which has been the mother-source of fake currencies of high denomination flowing over to Odisha for years, has reported a seizure of fake currencies with an estimated value of around mere Rs 40,000 from January to July this year. Interestingly, the seizures made by the Odisha police are over 90-times higher than what West Bengal police have seized during the period which raised many an eyebrow, confirming the fact that fake note racketeers have made Odisha their hub.
Notably, Odisha, which saw seizure of fake notes valued at worth over Rs 4.9 lakh in 2013 and around Rs 6 lakh in 2015, witnessed the lowest ever seizure of fake notes in 2016 following demonetization as the seizure value of such fake notes of high denomination dipped to a mere worth of Rs 72,000. However, the seizure values post demonetisation in 2017 indicated that fake note racketeers are still kicking well in the State.
Importantly, the major difference now and prior to demonetisation period that surfaced to the fore is fake notes recovery by the RBI/banks in the State have almost been nil. According to a senior RBI official in the currency division here, the recovery of fake notes of high denomination by banks across the State has been nil now, whereas, banks in the State have recovered high denomination fake notes valuing over a whopping Rs 18 lakh from January to October 2016 — the period prior to demonetisation. The reason: Since the new range of fake notes are photo-copies of new high denomination Indian currencies vis-à-vis the flow of high quality fake notes from across the border earlier, agents of fake rackets did not push it to the banking system for the fear of getting easily apprehended, reasoned the senior RBI official and added that, instead, they now are relying more in rural areas to push up their trade.
Sensing the enormity of proliferation of fakes, the State police have recently conducted an investigation into the fake note racket in an integrated way rather than inquiring in an isolated manner earlier. And as per the police investigations, though fake note printing units were identified in Bargarh and Sonepur, the police have found evidences to believe that a huge amount of fake notes have been routed in installments from West Bengal through conduits who work here as construction workers. Also fakes flow in via Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
While majority of high denomination notes were routed from West Bengal, small quantity were imported from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and even Karnataka, top sources confided.