Currency notes stolen from high-security CNP

NASHIK, JULY 12: Three bundles of currency notes of Rs 100 denomination were stolen from the high-security Currency Note Press CNP.The t...

NASHIK, JULY 12: Three bundles of currency notes of Rs 100 denomination were stolen from the high-security Currency Note Press CNP.

The theft worth Rs 30,000 was discovered by officials on Monday when three bundles containing 100 notes of Rs 100 denomination were found missing from the strongroom of the packing department. A search was launched in the CNP premises but the notes could not be traced. The stolen notes bore distinct numbers, 5 D N 931001 to 5 D N 931300.

On Tuesday, an official, Vijay Shankar Joshi, filed a complaint with the Nashik Road police station. The police, after interrogating some workers, zeroed in on one Datta Tukaram Sonawane, who had remained absent since three days. When Sonawane8217;s house at Nehru Nagar was searched, the police recovered 99 currency notes hidden, below a mattress. Police said that Sonawane had confessed to the crime and the remaining booty was being recovered. Sonawane has been arrested.

The high-security CNP and the India Security Press ISP, which prints passports, stamp-papers and other security stationery, have been witnessing intermittent thefts of currency-notes and stamp-papers in the past. The biggest theft had taken place on August 14, 1993, when 21 bundles of 100 currency-notes, each of Rs 50 denomination, were stolen from a railway wagon, parked at the ISP siding.

Sniffer dogs had recovered nine bundles, which had apparently been dropped by the fleeing thieves, but the remaining 12 bundles worth Rs six lakh could not be traced.

Six employees had been subsequently suspended in connection with the case. The theft had taken place close on the heels of the theft of 86 currency notes of Rs 100 denomination in the CNP premises. The theft had been discovered following complaints from the Reserve Bank of India8217;s branches at Mumbai, Nagpur and Calcutta, which reported that 13, 33 and 26 notes were missing, respectively, from bundles of Rs 100 sent by the CNP.

A vigil in the CNP found that 14 notes were missing from a newly-packed bundle of notes. Subsequently, the ministry of finance currency and coinage decided to hand over the security of the ISP and the CNP to the Central Industrial Security Force CISF.

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Plans were drawn to post CISF jawans and provide them residential and other facilities near the ISP and the CNP. However, the unions of workers vehemently opposed the entry of the CISF into the CNP and the ISP and finally the proposal was dropped.

The ISP and the CNP are high-security establishments of the Union Government and workers have to undergo a thorough search before entering and leaving the premises. The security and escorting of currency notes is done by local police and departmental security organisation.