The Special Cell busted a racket of Foreign Indian Currency Note (FICN) and arrested four people on Friday.
According to police, the arrested were identified as Sheikh Sehzad, Sheikh Fazullah, Rahman and Habibur Rehman. Police recovered fake currency worth Rs10.25 lakh in denominations of Rs1,000 and Rs500 from their possession.
Sleuths of the Special Cell said they were aware about members of the syndicate being involved in illegal activities such as FICN circulation. Following this secret surveillance was mounted. During surveillance, cops found that FICN was being pumped by Pakistan in India through Bangladesh. It was then smuggled into West Bengal's Malda through the Indo-Bangla border.
From Malda it was distributed to FICN racketeers in various parts of the country including Delhi. Painstaking efforts of more than 4 months had resulted in identifying members of this syndicate. Trap was laid and the accused were arrested.
During interrogation, the accused revealed that they were part of a big international FICN racket. During interrogation, Sheikh Sehzad and Rahman said they used to receive consignments of FICN from Bihar and then it was sold to retail customers in smaller quantities of Rs10,000-Rs20,000.
The current market rate of fake currency is Rs 40-Rs 50 for every fake Rs100 note. They said since large transactions are still made in cash, there is a huge demand of fake currency in Delhi-NCR.
During interrogation Habibur Rehman said is the cousin of the main supplier Jamal and both used to be partners in this racket. He also revealed that many of his family members are also involved in FICN smuggling. He further revealed fake currency exchange also takes place through the Nepal border.
Further investigation is on.