Fake Rs 2,000 notes seized, more security features replicated

With the recent incident, it now appears that fake currency racekteers may have replicated more than 11 security features of the new currency.

New Delhi, Feb 15: On Tuesday, the National Investigation Agency arrested Umar Farooq alias Firoj, a 21-year-old resident of Malda in West Bengal in connection with a two-year-old fake currency case. From him, the police seized three fake notes of the new Rs 2,000 denomination. The three notes seized from him were of very high quality and the same has been sent for forensic analysis.

This seizure comes close on the heels of another investigation that found that fake currency racketeers had replicated 11 out of the 17 security features in the new denomination Rs 2,000 notes.

Farooq was on his way to hand over the notes to another person. These were sample notes, an NIA official informed. On the face of it, the notes appeared to be of very high quality. This has raised doubts that the racketeers may have now replicated more than the 11 security features.

It may be recalled that the Government had on November 8, 2016 announced that one of the reasons behind demonetisation was taken to stop cross border trade of fake Indian currency which was being printed in the Rs 500 and 1,000 denomination.

In the past two months there have been more than two seizures of Rs 2,000 fake notes. It was found that the racketeers had managed to replicate more than half of the security features. During the February 8 seizure at Murshidabad, security forces arrested Azizur Rehman, a 26-year-old youth hailing from Malda in West Bengal.

He had on him 40 fake notes of the Rs 2,000 denomination. The notes were sent for forensic analysis and it was found that 11 out of the 17 features were replicated to perfection.

The features replicated were the transparent area, watermark, Ashoka Pillar emblem, the letters 'Rs 2000' on the left, the guarantee clause with the RBI governor's signature and the denomination number in Devanagari on the front.

In the earlier seizure, it was found that eight features had been replicated. They were a motif of the Chandrayan, the Swachh Bharat log, language panel and also the year of printing. Further, on the other side of the note, racketeers had managed to replicate the Devanagari numeral, the guarantee clause with the RBI governor's signature and the water mark.

OneIndia News