Patna, March 18: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has recently set up a special unit in the state capital to handle cases of counterfeit currency notes in an organised way.
Headed by an inspector-rank officer, the unit has been set up in the wake of frequent seizure of fake currency notes from bordering areas of the state.
A senior CBI officer said: “The central investigating agency has been entrusted with the task of probing into the cases pertaining to the seizure of counterfeit notes because people across the country and abroad are involved in them.”
If required, the CBI would issue notice against the people involved in the circulation of fake currency notes through Interpol, which the state police are incapable of.
The special unit of the CBI would work as a nodal agency to probe into cases of counterfeit notes reported from different parts of the state. “The first case it took up for investigation was from East Champaran district in view of its wide ramifications,” the senior officer said.
The CBI had written a letter to the state government in December 2011 for an advisory to the police officers to report the cases of fake note recovery to the CBI’s special unit without wasting any time.
“The issue related to jurisdiction of the state police in the investigation into fake currency note cases was raised at the meeting of the chief secretaries and the directors-general of police with Union home minister last year,” the officer added.
Central government organisations such as the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) had been directed to co-ordinate with the CBI’s special unit. At times, fake currency notes are seized by the DRI and the SSB officers and subsequently handed over to the district police for investigation. “The purpose behind setting up the special unit is to investigate such crime in an organised way,” the CBI officer said.
Earlier, the criminal investigation department (CID) had deputed an officer each in all the districts on the India-Nepal border to assist the district police in investigations into such cases. Madhubani, Sitamarhi, East and West Champaran, Araria, Kishanganj, Purnea and Supaul in north Bihar were identified as the districts most vulnerable to the circulation of fake currency notes.
The data compiled by the state police headquarters revealed that fake currency notes having a face value of Rs 16 lakh were seized in 2011 from different parts of the state. In 2010, fake currency notes to the tune of Rs 8.78 lakh were seized against Rs 7.93 lakh in 2009.
Earlier, the seizure of fake currency notes was negligible and it varied between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2.3 lakh per annum.
Additional director-general of police (headquarters) Ravinder Kumar said the state police would co-operate with the central investigating agency in the probe into the cases related to fake currency notes. “It is a fact that the seizure of counterfeit notes in the bordering areas of the state has increased in the past few years because of intelligence inputs and prompt action of the district police personnel,” he added.
