Counterfeit Indian Rupees smuggled from Pakistan: DB police
Four people – including a driver of the Department of Narcotics Control and his wife – were arrested in this connection
The arrested members of a counterfeit currency racket are bringing fake Indian Rupees from Pakistan through cargo containers of marbles or construction materials by sea, through collaboration with importers, the Detective Branch (DB) of police says.
"A driver of Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) in Sunamganj branch is involved in the gang of counterfeit Indian rupee smuggling," AKM Hafiz Akter, additional police commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan DB police, said at a press conference at DMP media centre on Wednesday.
A team of Detective Branch of police has nabbed four members of a fake Indian currency racket — including DNC driver Amanullah Bhuiyan, his wife Kajol Rekha, Yasin Arafat Keramot, and Nomanur Rahman Khan from the capital's Demra and Hazaribagh areas on Monday and Tuesday.
The DB police also seized a total of 15 lakh counterfeit Indian rupees and a mobile phone. Last year in November, a case on smuggling 7.35 crore fake Indian rupees was handed over to the DMP detective branch (Gulshan) for further investigation.
Hafiz, also the chief of Dhaka Metropolitan DB police, said that this counterfeit currency was called "super note" as the fake Indian rupees have such precision that they are very close to the original currency.
He also said "There are two families in Srinagar of Munshiganj who are assisting the counterfeit rupee smuggling. Most members of the families once lived in Pakistan. Fazlur Rahman, the senior-most of the family members, currently lives in Karachi. He used to collect the high-quality counterfeit rupees from Pakistan-based criminals and send it to Bangladesh through cargo containers of marbles or construction materials to Chattogram port from Karachi via Sri Lanka."
His brothers Saidur Rahman and Nomanur Rahman and brother-in-law Shafiqur Rahman used to assist him in the smuggling, the DB chief further said.
AKM Hafiz said in November last year, police arrested three people ---Saidur Rahman and two importers Taleb and Fatema Akhter -- along with 7.35 crore counterfeit Indian rupees. DB, during investigation in the case filed with Khilkhet police station, unearthed the connection of Nomanur Rahman in the racket. After analyzing the information, members of DB teams on Monday arrested him.
He also said, "It is an international racket and we found involvement of some Pakistani citizens in the gang. We are trying to identify and arrest all local and foreign members of the racket."
Queried whether the counterfeit currency racket has any link to militants, the DB chief said, "We did not get any connection with militants. The rackets used to smuggle firearms-narcotics and mobile phones in exchange for the counterfeit Rupees and the money collected by selling the fake rupees were sent to Pakistan through Hundi."
