In a major catch, the Special Cell of Delhi Police has nabbed a 35-year-old man from Malda district of West Bengal who was allegedly the key peddler of fake currency notes into the country which were smuggled via Bangladesh border.
The accused, identified as Shahjahan Sheikh alias Tunnu (35) was arrested on March 25 following a long running operation carried out in remote Kaliachak village of Malda, West Bengal which is a stone's throw from the Indo-Bangladesh border.
"In the last three years alone, his name had featured as the main supplier in at least 11 cases of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) recoveries made by us. He was running a wide ranging network of FICN peddlers and the footprints of his trade were spread as far as Gujarat and Maharashtra where he has been found involved in cases of FICN circulation," said Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) S N Shrivastava.
He was directly in contact with people in Chapai Nawabganj, Bangladesh near Rajashahi area of Bangladesh where ISI agents have set up a clandestine market where good quality FICN printed in Pakistan can be obtained in huge quantity by paying for it in original Bangladeshi currency, he added.
According to police, FICN was being obtained by him at about 25 per cent of its face value in Bangladesh and was being sold to down the chain retailers at about 40-45 per cent of the face value.
Shahjahan and his syndicate members were thus earning approximately Rs 20 per sale of a FICN worth Rs 100. The retailers who were ordering bulk supplies from Shahjahan were pushing this FICN in the actual market at about 65 per cent of its face value for consumption and assimilation in the Indian economy.
"His long periods of illegal activities got him many friends and contacts which were later to become the conduits in his trade of FICN peddling. He took to the business of FICN peddling, which was being practiced in his native village like a cottage industry," he said.
