Counterfeit currency peddlers change tack,use rail and inland container depots

The other routes were developed after the counterfeit currency racket through Kutch was busted,said the police.

The police said gangs involved in the fake currency business use the sea route,air,couriers,containers and hawala racket to bring in their consignment,but after the security agencies tightened the noose on the hawala racket,it is less favoured now. Recent investigations have shown that the fake currency is sent through ICDs (inland container depots) and also through the passengers travelling in trains.

Ahmedabad Range Inspector General G S Malik,who had busted the fake currency racket in Kutch,said: “The routes of transport have changed to railway from air cargoes and the sea route. The gangs are increasingly sending notes through passengers in general class compartments to push the fake currency in the state from other states. More and more fake currency notes are coming from Hyderabad through such routes.”

He said terrorist groups are suspected to be bringing in fake Indian currency notes from Dubai,which is the main transit point today.

He added: “The Kutch racket unveiled the suspected involvement of ISI where the currency was brought through the sea route. But off late,there are small inter-state gangs that have been found supplying fake currency in the state. The notes can pass off as genuine if not checked properly. The gangs are suspected to be connected to terrorist groups like HuJi who bring in the notes through Bangladesh or send it to Nepal before bringing it into India. There is a 50-50 partnership between them through which they charge a good sum for printing such notes.”

According to the Ahmedabad Crime Branch,only in few cases are the counterfeit currency notes locally printed in Gujarat,but those are mostly of low denominations less than Rs 500. Software like Adobe are used to design fake notes,but they are easily identifiable unlike the fake notes that arrive from Dubai,the police said.

They added that inter-state gangs involved in narcotics and transfer of arms cases have also been found to be involved in counterfeit currency rackets and they are under the scanner of the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).