The NIA on Thursday filed a chargesheet against four persons, who were part of a terrorist gang, for their alleged involvement in smuggling into the country Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) after procuring them from Bangladesh, an official said.
The chargesheet was filed before a Special NIA court in West Bengal’s Siliguri against Golam Martuja, Sadek Mia, both residents of West Bengal’s Malda, and Mohammad Baitullah and Mohammad Mukhtar Alam, both hailing from Bihar’s Kishanganj, under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the official said.
The case relates to the seizure of FICN in denomination of Rs 2,000 (200 pieces) and Rs 500 (two pieces) having a face value of Rs 4,01,000 from the possession of Martuja in January last year by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Regional Unit Siliguri, he said.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe in the case in March and arrested the remaining three accused, the official said.
The accused were part of a terrorist gang comprising smugglers, couriers and distributors of FICN, criminally conspired to smuggle and circulate high-quality counterfeit Indian paper currency notes leading to destroy the monetary stability of India, an NIA spokesperson said.
The accused used to receive FICNs from Bangladesh-based smugglers through multiple couriers and used to circulate them in different parts of India and near the Indo-Nepal border in lieu of FICNs from these locations into one account of Malda, he said.
The proceeds were subsequently channelised to Bangladesh-based smugglers through different couriers/hawala, the NIA official said.
Further investigation in the case to unearth the full conspiracy and the transnational linkages continues, he added.
