Scholar acquitted in fake currency case

A scholar arrested with fake Indian currency notes (FICNs) here on his return from Iran in 2012 has been acquitted by a special court which said he was not in "conscious possession" of those notes.
Special Judge Rakesh Pandit granted the relief to Karnataka resident Syed Mohd Ali, who was apprehended at IGI airport here with 52 FICNs of Rs 1000 denomination.
In its order, the court noted that the FICNs were of such a quality that a layman/common man/prudent man could not distinguish/differentiate it from original currency in normal course.
It also noted that there was doubt on the safe chain of custody of those currency notes.

"The possibility cannot be ruled out that accused was not aware of and thus was not having conscious possession of the 52 FICNs when he was apprehended at IGI Airport," it said, adding that the accused was not using them as genuine.
"The accused was not aware that those are FICNs and thus was not having conscious possession of Ex.P-3/P1 (the fake currency notes)," the court said.

According to the prosecution, on November 6, 2012 the accused came from Iran and at his arrival at IGI Airport, he was examined by the customs officials.
The officials found 61 currency notes of Rs 1,000 denomination which were checked by the bank officials.

It was informed that since 52 notes were not being accepted by the machine, those notes could have been fake after which an FIR was registered and the accused was arrested. He was, however, later released on bail.
The notes were sent to FSL and those 52 notes were found to be Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs).
The accused, however, had claimed that he had gone to Iran for giving lectures and earned local Iranian currency equivalent to US dollar 10,000 approximately.
He said that he got Iranian currency exchanged with US dollars from local money changer at Qom, Iran but since there were insufficient US dollars, he was handed over Indian currency notes and that he was not aware that there was any FICNs.

Ali was a cleric and used to deliver religious speeches in India and abroad.
He has also written several books and has translated some from the Persian language to Urdu and visa-versa.