As the country is undergoing the process of demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes, an incident of an onion farmer being cheated with a fake photocopy of a Rs2,000 currency note has come to light in Chikkamagaluru town in Karnataka. The woes of onion farmer Ashok who had brought a few bags of onion to the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) yard at Chikkamagaluru, a coffee district in Karnataka on Saturday has churned the process. An unknown person who purchased onion from him, handed him a Rs2,000 note and said it was a new note and valid. However, when Ashok showed it to some of his friends, they found the note was only a photocopy of the original currency note.
According to district police chief K Annamalai it was a photocopy of the original note and a case has been registered. He said “It was a photocopy of the original note. It is poorly photocopied, anybody can notice it easily. The person was given the copy by an unknown person in APMC market".
Chikkamagaluru police collected details from the farmer and reached the APMC. “We are booking a case of cheating as per Section 420 of IPC in Chikkamagaluru Town station,” the SP added.
Even though most of the general public has not even seen the new Rs2,000 currency note released by the Reserve Bank of India two days ago, a fake note has already appeared in the market defying the main purpose. The police are also investigating about the source and bank from where the original note of the similar serial number was issued.
Meanwhile the a division bench of the Karnataka high court has praised the decision to scrap Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes and said “a major step was necessary in the wake of insurgencies and running of a parallel economy, which is ruining the backbone of Indian economy.”
A Division Bench made these observations in its order while dismissing a PIl petition, which had questioned the Centre’s demonetisation policy. Additional Solicitor-General Prabhuling K. Navadgi had told the court there are a large number of fake currencies and a parallel economy running, and the authorities had thought it fit to tackle the situation through demonetisation. The court also said that persons who had money which could be accounted for had no difficulties, but those with unaccounted money would suffer. The petitioner, Mohammed Haroon Rasheed, a city advocate, had contended that people who were not computer-savvy were suffering in day-to-day affairs.
Meanwhile on Saturday too across the state witnessed serpentine queues in front of almost all banks and ATMs a common sight .People, including women and senior citizens, lined up since morning in front of banks waiting for their turn to exchange old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes with new currency. Even at ATMs, there were long queues and many had to return disappointed when cash in the teller machine got exhausted.