Sleuths of the Anti-Terrorists Squad (ATS) claimed to have nabbed one of the kingpin of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) suppliers and recovered Rs 5.02 lakh of counterfeit currency in Rs 1000 denominations, here at lucknow on Friday morning.
The kingpin operating from Nepal on directions of his Pakistani bosses of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was said to also funding terror groups and was in contact with commanders of laskar-e-Taiba with a task to look for new recruit in the country to carry forward Rs Jehad’ (read terror activity) in India. The ATS team who produced him in a local court will now take his custody remand to extract information of his other conduits active in the State. Besides, they will also try to confirm whether any sleeping module has been operating in the State whom he also funded through his earnings.
Briefing the media persons here on Friday evening, ADG (law and order) Arun Kumar disclosed that the ATS team which is trailing behind a kingpin of FICN supplier to India through Nepal and Bangladesh border made a major breakthrough when they learnt that one of the Nepal based kingpin was in lucknow and will take a bus to go to Rupaiyadiha border (Maharajganj) to cross-over to Nepal. He said that the team rushed and laid a trap on him near Kaiserbagh bus station on Friday morning. He said that besides FICN they also recovered SIM cards, mobile and other documents which also included a diary having contact number of overseas suppliers of FICN.
Arun Kumar said that the held kingpin was identified as Imran Ahmed Teli aka Munna aka Afatab aka Sameer aka Guptaji aka Imran Samani aka Salman, presently operating from Veerganj in Nepal. During interrogation, Imran disclosed that he hails from West Champaran district of West Bengal and after completing intermediate he shifted to his uncle’s house in Veerganj at Nepal and took his business of supplying cloves etc in 2007. However, when he suffered huge loss in the business he decided to make fast money and came in contact with Sajid Ansari aka Sajid Master, hailing from Raksual in Bihar and took FICN supply business at 5 percent share.
Imran claimed that he had some dispute with Sajid over the supply so he left his company and came in contact with major Kathmandu (Nepal) based suppliers whom he identified Yunus Ansari, Altaf Ansari aka Munna, lal Mohamed Thapa, Pramod Kushwaha, Upendra Chowdhary etc. He started getting high quality FICN printed in Pakistan, Hongkong, Dubai, Malasiya, Singapore etc through courier and he made the payments through hawala after cutting his share. He claimed that in 2009 when one key supplier Aslam Pakistani was held in Nepal in FICN case, he went to meet him in jail and managed to getcontacts of some suppliers of FICN from Pakistan.
After getting in touch with those suppliers he went to Karachi in Pakistan on a Nepali passport through Nepal and also from Bangladesh in 2010 and made direct contacts with the kingpins there. He also met there one Aslam Chowdhary (custom officer in Pakistan) who besides officials of ISI officials like Bhai Saheb aka Irshad Chowdhary, Aslam Shera, Razzaq Marfani, Zamil Bhatti, Zaved Pakistani etc, was one of the leading FICN suppliers to India through Nepal and Bangladesh. He claimed that Aslam Chowdhary gave him FICN worth Rs 85 lakh which he supplied in India. In 2011-12 when some main Nepal based suppliers were held, he went to Pakistan and
procured consignment of FICN worth between Rs 15 to 20 crores and later he pumped it in India through Nepal. However he said that consignment of FICN Rs 50 lakh and Rs 30 lakh which they tried to procure through an International courier by one Iqbal Kana aka Hafiz, who originally hails from Kairana in Muzaffarnagar and presently operating from Pakistan was seized by the local agencies in Nepal in June last and they also launched a hunt for him, so he sensed trouble and slipped to India and came to lucknow to take shelter. He also disclosed that he Iqbal Kana also send him to Pakistan to learn operating FICN business through internet last year.