January 29, 2016
In Malda, fake currency is easily delivered at your door step, it is as easy as ordering lemonade.
On Thursday, India Today Television showed you how paddy has been replaced with opium as the main crop in West Bengal's Malda. In few parts of India opium farming is permitted for medicinal purposes. But in Malda it is neither legal nor regulated. That hasn't stopped farmers from shifting en masse from cultivating rice and wheat to growing poppy. Today, opium farming is the most lucrative cottage industry in Malda worth almost Rs 3200 crore.
In the second part of our investigative series on Malda, which has now earned the dubious moniker of India's Afghanistan due to the thriving opium farming, fake currency and arms trade, we focus on the huge fake currency racket being run from this region.
Getting fake currency as easy as ordering lemonade
In Malda, fake currency is easily delivered at your door step. One doesn't have to travel to some far flung village and encounter several risks to be able to penetrate the fake currency network. The fake currency racket is so widespread that buying fake notes is as easy as ordering food in a restaurant.
India Today's special investigation team was waiting for dinner to arrive in the hotel room in Malda, when one of our correspondents casually asked the waiter if he could arrange some fake currency. Of course he could, was the young waiter's reply. He made it sound as if we had just ordered a glass of lemon soda. Within 15 minutes, there was a man named Aslam in the room.
"Yes, you can get it very easily. The Rs 500 note is easy to catch. I can also arrange Rs 50 and Rs 100 notes for you," was Aslam's reply when asked whether he could arrange some fake Indian currency for us?
AK-47 or 9 MM pistol - Malda's arms market has them all
Not only fake Indian currency, Aslam also assured India Today reporters of arranging arms. "Can you arrange a 9MM pistol for us," Aslam was asked. His response will shock you.
"Why just a 9 MM pistol, I can also get you an AK-47 from Kaliachak, no problem. I have even delivered weapons from here to Ghaziabad," Aslam said.
90 per cent of fake currency entering through Malda
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) estimates that 90 per cent of all the fake currency entering India from Bangladesh is routed through Malda, the district which has a long and porous border with Bangladesh.
A note prepared by the NIA on the efforts to curb fake Indian currency notes, which has been accessed by India Today, says, "Over a period of time, Malda has emerged as a major transit route for Fake Indian Currency couriers. The Fake India Currency Notes or FICN produced outside India is brought into the country by couriers, principally through Malda via Bangladesh."
The note goes on to add,"From a number of cases investigated by NIA, ample evidence has emerged that this region of the country is a major conduit for pumping counterfeit currency into the country. This region because of geopolitical factors and demographics has become a hub for smugglers of Fake Indian Currency."
"Malda has emerged as a major transit zone along with Murshidabad in West Bengal. A lot of the couriers are from Malda. They are in touch with suppliers from Bangladesh. Actual users come and collect fake currency from them. This is very high quality fake currency," IG NIA Alok Mittal said.
On January 14, a team of the NIA in a joint operation with the crime branch in Maharashtra's Buldhana arrested a person with Rs 1,95,000 of fake currency. This fake currency had been supplied to him by a courier from Malda in West Bengal.
Four days before that on January 10, the NIA in a joint operation with the Bihar Police seized fake currency worth Rs 4,00,000 from West Champaran. This consignment too had been brought from Malda. A case has been registered under FIR no 12/2016 at the Majuhaulia district of Betia in Bihar.
The modus operandi and Pakistan's involvement
"It is clear that the money comes from Pakistan and from there to Bangladesh and then to India. It is a big racket in Bangladesh. In recent times, Bangladeshi authorities have seized big consignments of fake currency and it is clear that is coming from Pakistan," Mittal added.
According to a report prepared by India's intelligence agencies
High quality fake Indian currency notes are published in printing presses run by the ISI inside Pakistan
The ink and the multi-colour offset machines used to print these fake notes are those which can only be purchased by sovereign nations and not by private individuals
These notes are first sold to Pakistan based wholesalers at 5 per cent of the actual value
This means a Rs 1000 fake note is sold by the ISI to a Pakistani wholesaler for Rs 50
The Pakistan-based wholesaler sells the fake Rs 1000 note to a wholesaler in a country like Bangladesh for Rs 150, making a profit of Rs 100 on every note
The Bangladeshi wholesaler then sells the fake notes to India-based wholesalers for Rs 350 each. This means that by the time the fake Rs 1000 note enters India it is worth Rs 350
The wholesaler then sells the note to retailers like Aslam who met us in Malda for Rs 450
People like Aslam then sell the fake currency at 55 per cent of it's real value, which means you can buy a Rs 1000 note in Malda for Rs 550
A recent study commissioned by government agencies suggests that at any point in time about Rs 2500 crore of fake currency is in circulation in the Indian market. Because of lax control, smugglers find it easy to operate out of places like Malda. These fake notes are an attempt by the ISI to destabilise the Indian economy.
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