Be afraid, be very afraid

A fluid border with Bangladesh has made West Bengal a breeding ground for fake currency notes. Recently, one of the odd victims of this racket was Trinamool Congress (TMC) minister Jyotipriyo Mullick. Some days ago, when Mullick withdrew Rs 6,500 from a private bank's ATM in Kolkata, notes worth Rs 1,500 were detected to be fake by a jeweller friend of the minister. The minister was too wary to lodge a police complaint. Rather, he called a press meet to vent his ire. "I couldn't even inform the state about the incident. I aver the whole thing will take a different shape. Some years back, another TMC minister, Kalyan Banerjee, too received fake currency from an ATM," he told journalists. If Mullick's words are anything to go by, ministers in West Bengal should be doubly careful while using ATMs because not only are they susceptible to frauds like the average Joe, they can't even seek police intervention.