Police had said they had received a tip-off about Nasirul, a resident of Malda, leaving Delhi to deliver a consignment to Rasmuddin, a resident of Mewat. (Representational photo)
Raising doubts over the probe carried out by the Delhi Police special cell in a suspected fake currency case, a Delhi sessions court has acquitted two men who were facing trial for allegedly smuggling fake currency printed in Pakistan from Bangladesh into the country. The special cell, which specialises in probing fake currency cases, had in September 2014 claimed to have busted an “international racket” with the arrest of two men, Rasmuddin Khan and Nasirul Sheikh.
Watch what else is making news:
The special cell claimed it had recovered “fake Indian currency notes (FICN) printed in Pakistan with a face value of Rs 7 lakh”.
Story continues below this ad
But additional sessions judge Reetesh Singh said, “Factually, the present case…is not free from reasonable doubt. The net result of the discussion is that the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.”
The men had been charged under IPC sections 489B (using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency notes), 489C (possession of forged or counterfeit currency notes) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Police had said they had received a tip-off about Nasirul, a resident of Malda, leaving Delhi to deliver a consignment to Rasmuddin, a resident of Mewat. Police had said the two were supposed to meet at ISBT Sarai Kale Khan, but they kept changing plans, and were eventually arrested on September 26, 2014 from old toll plaza on NH-8.
Acquitting the two, Singh said, “The manner in which the police team came to know about the constant change in venue of delivery of FICN is not free from doubt. There are no details of the vehicles used in the raid and no logbooks have been produced.”
Story continues below this ad
The court also questioned the prosecution’s version of “technical surveillance”, which had led to the arrests of the two men.
“If it was the secret informer who was with the inspector (prosecution witness) and was in telephonic contact with some other person about the venue of delivery and its change, it is surprising that the rukka (investigation paper) speaks of ‘technical surveillance’ while the other witnesses talk about analysis of call detail records. This casts a serious doubt as to how the police team got information about the change in venue of delivery of FICN,” ASJ Singh said.
The court also pulled up the special cell and asked why no attempts were made to join public witnesses in the cases.
“The police team was on the road from 5.30 am to 9.30 pm. During this period, they visited three places — ISBT Sarai Kale Khan, Nuh bus stand in Haryana, and NH-8 old toll plaza. In this entire period, they were unable to associate even one single person from the public with their proceedings,” Singh said.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
3 min read
Police had said they had received a tip-off about Nasirul, a resident of Malda, leaving Delhi to deliver a consignment to Rasmuddin, a resident of Mewat. (Representational photo)
