West Bengal: Two arrested as fake currency seizures continue near Bangladesh border

West Bengal police on Saturday arrested two persons from two different bordering districts of the state and seized fake Indian currency notes (FICNs) of Rs 2000 denominations with a face value of Rs 2.92 lakh.

Security agencies have made several seizures of fake new Rs 2,000 notes from West Bengal's districts that share border with Bangladesh in the past two months.

These seizures showed circulation of counterfeit notes continued even after the Centre's decision to scrap high value banknotes in November last year to purge the economy of black money and fake currency.

A senior police officer of the state's Murshidabad district on Sunday said that one Alam Sheikh was arrested from near Dhulian Ferry Ghat area after the cops were tipped off about his arrival from neighbouring Malda with a consignment of FICNs.

The police recovered 100 fake notes of Rs 2000 denominations from Sheikh, a resident of Malda's Baishnabnagar



area.

In a separate incident, police arrested one Mukesh Miyan alias Bhutto and sized counterfeit notes with a face value of Rs 92 thousand from him from Malda's Englishbazar police station area. Miyan is a resident of Sarda Pagla Tola village of the district.

Both the accused were remanded to police custody after they were produced before a court on Sunday.

"We need to interrogate Alam Sheikh to know how he got the notes and where they were printed," said Murshidabad SP Mukesh.

Significantly, both the arrested persons hail from Malda's Baishnabnagar and Kaliachawk police stations areas, which have earned notoriety for being the hubs of fake currency smuggling. Majority of the people arrested in the past two months with fake notes hailed from these areas.

"We believe the notes are being smuggled through the unfenced international border at Kaliachawk and Baishnabnagar," a senior police officer in Malda district said.