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| Some of the fake notes seized by the BSF and the police on Saturday. Picture by Biplab Basak |
Siliguri, May 19: Acting on a tip-off, BSF personnel arrested a person carrying fake currency with face value of Rs 85,000 at Islampur on Saturday evening.
“We have arrested Md Nassim, a resident of Islampur, with the help of police and recovered fake Indian currency from his possession,” said R.S. Gill, the deputy commandant of BSF, north Bengal frontier.
“One hundred and seventy counterfeit notes in Rs 500 denomination were recovered from him,” Gill said.
After receiving a tip-off from their intelligence wing that Nassim would reach Putia More with fake notes, the BSF officials informed Islampur police and a joint team was formed, the officer said.
“When the suspect was waiting at Putia More, possibly to hand over the fake notes to someone, we surrounded him and caught him. Nassim had with him a small handbag. We found the fake currencies inside the bag. We immediately took Nassim into custody,” said Gill.
“This is one of the largest hauls of fake Indian currency in the past five years, especially in a single operation. In October last year, we had arrested a person from Islampur with fake notes of Rs 55,000.”
According to the BSF intelligence sources, Nassim had been active in this illegal trade for a long time. He used to deal with cattle traders and make payments to them in fake notes in different villages along the India-Bangladesh border. He was also associated with the cattle smugglers.
“During interrogation, we have come to know that there are several more persons involved in the racket. The network is apparently very active in Malda, Islampur, Chopra and some parts of Assam,” said a BSF official. He added that more such raids would be conducted.