Musharaf Hussain (left) and a CBI sleuth at the Kaliachak police station in Malda on Wednesday. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Dec. 3: A former Congress gram panchayat member has been detained for interrogation by a CBI team from Delhi that is investigating a fake currency racket operating in the district bordering Bangladesh.

Last evening, 35-year-old Musharraf Hossain was picked up from his residence in Marwabadi village, 40km from here.

The CBI sleuths believe that Hossain is one of the big agents of the racket that operates out of Bangladesh, sources said.

The five-member team in a three-day visit, led by officer Sanjay Kumar, arrived yesterday morning and went straight to the office of the Alipur I gram panchayat. The officers introduced themselves as a central audit team from Delhi. They asked the staff members to provide as much information on Hossain as was possible. They picked up Hossain from his home and took him to the Kaliachak police station for interrogation.

One of the CBI sleuths have said most of the fake Indian currency being recovered from across Uttar Pradesh had its sources in Malda district. The CBI has found out that Hossain has a shop in Kaliachak where he sells mosquito nets and blankets.

Hossain told his interrogators that he knew people in Uttar Pradesh from whom he procured river turtles, which were smuggled to Bangladesh.

The Delhi team said they were following leads provided by arrested gram panchayat pradhan of Alipur I, the Congress’s Saqila Banu, and her husband, Liakat Ali. The duo were arrested from Kaliachak by the Uttar Pradesh police on December 6 last year.

Despite having a monthly income of Rs 900, the Uttar Pradesh police had found out that four deposits of Rs 76 lakh each, totalling Rs 3.04 crore, were made into an account of the pradhan with a private bank in Malda. During the course of the investigation, the special superintendent of police, Aligarh, Raghuveer Lal, had said Rs 75 lakh was withdrawn in Aligarh from Saqila’s account on November 21, 2007. He had said the money was being used for anti-national purposes.

Malda superintendent of police Satyajit Banerjee said he could not disclose the exact nature of the CBI’s inquiry. “They have come here based on specific information and we are extending all cooperation to them.”