Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel arrested a person with 47 fake Rs 2,000 notes from Raxaul on Tuesday evening, signalling that counterfeit currency smugglers have become active once again on the India-Nepal border.

This is the first such seizure of fakes of new currency issued after demonetisation last year from the sub-divisional town of East Champaran district, around 210 km north of Patna, which had been a major route of pumping in of such notes into India before the note ban.

The SSB personnel nabbed a young man from the town on Tuesday evening when he was going to deliver the consignment to another person.

SSB deputy commandant Amit Kumar, who confirmed the arrest, said the youth was carrying the fake notes. The youth was interrogated and handed over to the local police on Wednesday afternoon, Kumar said.

Sources in the SSB, however, revealed that apart from the fake Indian notes, the youth, who lives on Ashram Road in Raxaul, also had a Pakistani Rs 20 note. That raises suspicion about Pakistan's involvement in the supply of fake currency into India via Nepal.

'During interrogation, the youth revealed that he had been provided the consignment by one Niku Mian of a village located near Raxaul and he was supposed to deliver it to a paan shop near Nahar Chowk of Raxaul town for which he would have got Rs 1,500 as service charge,' an SSB officer said under cover of anonymity.

The SSB personnel also recovered a blank cheque of the main branch of State Bank of India in Raxaul town, and two train tickets from the youth that suggested he had travelled to Bandel near Calcutta on July 27 and the next day he had gone to Serampore in Bengal.

There is also confusion about the age of the youth as his Aadhaar card says he is 15 years old whereas he claims he is 18 and the entry in the Aadhaar card is wrong.

SSB sources said that the fake currency were of high quality and many of the security features of the original notes had been matched, hence officials from central agencies too interrogated the arrested youth.

What raised the SSB personnel's suspicion was that several of the seized notes carried the same number.

On closer scrutiny, it was revealed that the RBI mark, which turns from green to blue when the note's position is changed, was not changing colour. The thickness of the fake notes was a bit more than real ones.

A bank manager was also called to examine the notes and after thorough checking he confirmed that all the seized notes were fake.

'We will probe the case thoroughly to reach the root of the network supplying fake notes in this area,' said Raxaul sub-divisional police officer Rakesh Kumar.