Fake Notes in India fuel Islamic Terrorism

The Telegraph: ISI whiff in fake notes haul
OUR CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, July 7: Delhi police today claimed to have busted a cross-border gang that smuggled fake currency from Pakistan but voiced surprise at the high quality of the “professionally printed” notes.

Sources said a police decoy struck a deal for buying at a 50 per cent discount the notes that had a face value of Rs 10.57 lakh before catching the five alleged smugglers, all in their early 20s.

All five — two from Delhi and the rest from Bulandshahr — were in regular touch with their Pakistani contacts, the police said. The sources said the fake notes were being smuggled in on planes, trains and buses and then circulated in the Indian market.

“They were not crude notes, but professionally printed. The notes, all of Rs 500 denomination, are unlikely to have been made in a small private press. All the notes have excellent paper and printing quality and would appear genuine to a layman. They (the gang) told us the consignments arrived from Pakistan to Nepal and then to India via Gorakhpur,” said deputy commissioner (Crime) Neeraj Thakur.

Officials said one of the accused, Shan Mohd, 21, had been released from Tihar about three months ago after nearly two years in jail for a similar case.

Sources in the crime branch, which seized the fake notes today, said “normally”, the signature of the RBI governor on a fake currency is that of a former governor. “But in this case they had the signature of the most recent governor. The details on the notes also closely matched those on an original,” said an official.

Sources said details of the case had been handed over to the Intelligence Bureau as there was a suspicion that Pakistan’s spy agency ISI might be involved in the racket.
ISI whiff in fake notes haul