Benoy Chakraborty (centre) with the counterfeit notes seized by the Malda police. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Feb. 7: After a night-long raid, Nikhil Mondal from the Baishnabnagar police station area was arrested today with Rs 7.65 lakh in fake currency.

The arrest followed another incident yesterday, in which the Jharkhand police picked up Sadhan Mondal and Ainul of Malda from Ranchi with fake notes worth Rs 3.5 lakh. Genuine notes of Rs 50,000 were also found on them. They had reportedly been told to use genuine notes while buying train or bus tickets or settling bills.

“There has been a spurt in smuggling of counterfeit notes from Bangladesh, which are being used by militant groups to buy arms. Some residents of bordering villages are directly or indirectly involved in the rackets,” said Benoy Chakraborty, deputy inspector-general of police, Malda range. Printed in Pakistan, these notes are reportedly entering India through Bangladesh. Agents in Malda and other bordering districts then fan out across the country to sell them, a source said.

According to Chakraborty, five persons have been arrested and more than Rs 11-lakh fake currency seized over the past one month.

“The figure is higher than the total money seized in 2006. Counterfeit notes worth Rs 18 lakh were seized last year,” he said. The fake notes are of such “high quality that they can hardly be distinguished from genuine ones”, a police official said.

District superintendent of police Dilip Mondal said they have already handed over the fake-currency cases to the criminal investigation department (CID). According to him, the situation may turn disastrous if it was not addressed right now.

“International gangs are involved in it. We do not have the infrastructure to handle such cases. Even the BSF has been sounded an alert about the smuggling from Bangladesh,” Mondal said.