FAKE CURRENCY CONTEMPORARY-ISSUE

FAKE CURRENCY CONTEMPORARY-ISSUE

Many countries  is pumping fake Indian currency worth hundreds of crores each year in an attempt to destabilise the country's economy, according to the latest estimates by Indian intellignece agencies. Sources in the National Investigating Agency say that the recently seized fake notes were most likely printed in state owned printing presses in Karachi and Quetta. Fake currency is also being fed into circulation through sleeper terrorist cells.

Much of this fake currency is being smuggled into India through Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Dubai. While the first two countries have relatively open borders.

The Nepal police arrested nine people in 2011 for carrying fake Indian currency on their person. Two Pakistani couriers were also arrested in Kathmandu after they arrived from Karachi with fake notes "worth" Rs 40 lakh in the denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

Sources in the Intelligence Bureau told The Sunday Guardian that the agency is preparing a dossier on fake notes. The Central government has already asked the different intelligence agencies and the economic offences wings of the states to prepare a dossier on such currency.

India will then raise the issue at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body with the mandate to combat money laundering and terror financing. India wants to push this global body to initiate sanctions against Pakistan. The information collected by the intelligence agencies and the state economic offences wings will be forwarded to the Ministry of Finance for a complete report, which will be submitted to the FATF in its next meeting in October 2011.

"We are importing almost 70% of the paper from outside. Similar companies are providing paper to Pakistan as well. We have just one paper manufacturing unit and four printing presses. We need to bridge the supply and demand gap by opening some more paper factories. We can develop our own secure papers. Unless we do that, counterfeiting will not stop," a government source said.

HOW TO IDENTIFY FAKE CURRENCY

Intelligence inputs reveal that Trivandrum and Hyderabad are fast emerging as transit points for fake currency coming in from Dubai. Consignments are being transferred to other parts of the country from these cities. Most of these consignments are being smuggled into India by Dawood's Dubai-based gang. These notes are very similar to those released by the Reserve Bank of India and so it is very difficult to distinguish them.

Statements By Different Authorities:

"The government would earlier make at least two changes in the security features every year, but that is no longer the case, which is making the job easier for fake currency makers based in Pakistan," said Dr S.C. Mittal, former head of the Documents Division of Central Bureau of Investigation's Forensic Science Laboratory.

        "Nowadays, they change only the year of printing, which is not enough. Look at the United States, they change security features quite frequently. When I was heading the forensic lab, I informed the government that Pakistan was printing Indian currency and we needed to be careful in terms of security features," Mittal added.

Sources in the National Investigation Agency confirmed Pakistan's role in fake currency smuggling.

"After examining the recently seized fake currency in the laboratory it is clear that most of these notes have been printed in Pakistan. There is a huge difference between these notes and the ones seized earlier, the notes that were printed in India by some groups. The paper and printing quality are very different from the earlier notes. This suggests that these notes were printed in state owned printing press in Karachi and Quetta."

The NIA has also filed a supplementary charge sheet in a fake currency case in a Mumbai court suggesting that these notes are being circulated by an organised group and could be used for funding terror sleeper cells.