UP govt orders SIT probe in SBI fake currency episode

Siddharthnagar/Lucknow, Aug 7 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh government today ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the multi-crore rupees fake currency racket recently unearthed in the chest of the State Bank of India (SBI) Domariaganj branch where over Rs 1.25 crore of fake currency have been detected so far.

State Home Secretary Mahesh Gupta announced the government decision on the SIT probe in the Domariaganj fake currency racket.

He said the SIT would investigate into the racket, though no time limit has been given to them.

When asked about the ill-equipped SIT, constituted last year, Mr Gupta said there was nothing to worry about and if required government could go for bigger probe in the later stages.

Yesterday, UP government had handed over the counterfeit currency racket detected in Aligarh in December 2007 to the CBI. Police had arrested a couple from Malda in West Bengal and some others along with fake currency worth over Rs 11 lakh.

Meanwhile, the police and STF teams might go for major raids in some parts of eastern UP tonight after the two accused -- Sudhakar Tripathi and Abid -- during their interrogation today revealed the names of their accomplices in the racket. Both the culprits were in police custody for nine hours today.

During the interrogation Sudhakar had also reported to have admitted that he had mixed Rs 1.50 crore of fake currency in the Bank's chest.

State Additional Director General of Police (law and Order Brij Lal told reporters here that he had written the first letter to RBI officials to check the inflitration of fake currency through the banks of eastern UP on March 29, 2007. The police had asked the RBI to check all the chests of the nationalised banks in the Indo-Nepal border of the state, but the RBI did not react on the letter.

However, the RBI's regional director took the pain to start checking the currencies at Domariaganj SBI's chest when Mr Lal again shot off a letter to him after busting of a big fake currency racket at a nationalised bank in Domariaganj.

In the letter, the police officer said he had asked the RBI to check all the chests of nationalised banks of all the bordering districts of Indo-Nepal border, including Gorakhpur, Basti, Maharajganj, Kheri and Gonda and Muzaffanagar, Bijnour, Saharanpur, Moradabad and Aligarh districts of western UP for checking inflow of fake currencies.

On the other hand RBI has registered a case of fake currency against ICICI bank's Sanjay Palace branch in Agra.

The ADG said the RBI complaint said that the ICICI bank had supplied fake currency worth Rs 1,250 to them. The fake currency notes received by the RBI comprised one note of Rs 500 denomination, seven notes of Rs 100 denomination and one note of Rs 50 denomination.

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