The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) declared on Monday that the outfit that had supplied fake notes to Shankar Acharya, arrested on Saturday, was the one that had tried to slip in a similar consignment in July last year through a carrier in Beniapukur.

The carrier had been arrested by the detective department, but the person who was supposed to receive the notes Acharya was carrying managed to give cops the slip.

He is a Pakistani national and was a link between ISI agents in Bangladesh and those operating in the city.

He managed to flee even before police could cordon off his hideout in Howrah?s Domjur.

Acharya, 40, a former employee of the blood bank, was arrested in his Lake View Road residence a few hours after he had returned from Bangladesh.

Police seized fake notes worth Rs 22 lakh, all in denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, stashed in a suitcase in his apartment.

Deputy inspector-general, CID (operations), Rajeev Kumar, said: ?It appears the men involved in both incidents are the same and they have strong city links.?

Sleuths grilling Acharya believe the members of the racket had trapped Acharya and had plans to use him regularly to pass on fake notes to their contacts in Howrah?s Domjur.

?Had Acharya been actively involved with the racket, he would not have told the members his post-paid mobile phone number. Like other colluders, he could have passed on an alternative number,? said an officer.

Studying the serial numbers of the notes, the sleuths have found out that they were all of the AC-5 and AC-6 series. Notes of the same series had been seized from the Tiljala Lane residence of the ?carrier? last year.

The ?carrier? had later admitted that those were meant for a businessman dealing in leather goods in Mumbai?s Zaveri Bazaar.

CID officers suspect the notes seized from Acharya?s residence were meant for the same destination.

The cops on Monday raided the Akhil Bandhu Lane residence, in Domjur, of the Pakistani national who was to receive Acharya?s consignment. They also spoke to a few of his neighbours.

In a separate move, the sleuths also tried to collect details of Acharya?s business links with Khulna, in Bangladesh. He used to deal in dried fish.

His bank accounts will be scanned to figure out whether he had received any bulk payment in the recent past.

On Monday, detective department chief Gyanwant Singh held a brief discussion with additional superintendent of Howrah police (town) Laxmi Singh.

Singh refused to say whether he would interrogate Acharya: ?I would not like to say anything on this.?

Sources said officers of the note forgery section in the detective department have been asked to step up their vigil.