After the arrest of a man from West Bengal with 40 fake Rs 2,000 notes, a senior official linked to the investigation said a small batch of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes could already be in circulation in Indian market.
Also read: Demonetisation: Govt detects huge number of fake notes during exchange
Azizur Rahman was arrested with fake notes at Murshidabad last week. The notes were printed in Pakistan with the help of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and were smuggled across the border from Bangladesh, Rahman reportedly told the investigators.
Smugglers pay around Rs 400 to Rs 600 in genuine currency for each Rs 2,000 note, depending on the quality, Rahman had confessed.
"The quality has improved from the last time and it is difficult to detect a fake note with naked eyes now. Last month, the FICN (Fake Indian Currency Note) smugglers pushed some sample notes of the new Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 denomination in small numbers to check their feasibility for circulation. We fear that they will be seen in the market very soon," said a senior official linked to the probe.
In response to the latest arrest, MoS Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said, "If there is fake currency/hoarding of assets, we are serious about it."
The smuggling at the Indo-Bangladesh border is critical enough that the Border Security Force (BSF) is reportedly in talks with the Reserve Bank of India to train their personnel to detect fake notes.
"The number of counterfeit notes recovered in the area by security agencies is a matter of concern. Even though the new notes were released with upgraded security features, these too have been replicated. We are in talks with RBI for a training program for our soldiers and officers on ground duty for identifying fake notes. Hopefully, we will be able to do it very soon," a senior BSF official said.
According to an analysis of government data by IndiaSpend, of every 250 fake notes in circulation, only 16 were detected in 2015-16.
In 2015, 0.88 million fake notes worth Rs 43.8 crore were seized, according to National Crime Records Bureau data. Till September 30, 2016, Rs 27.8 crore was seized.
According to a 2015 joint study by the Indian Statistical Institute and National Investigation Agency, the value of fake currency in the Indian economy at any given time was Rs 400 crore, which means 250 in every million notes was fake. A report by the TOI in May 2016 also said that every year Rs 70 crore fake currency was added to the economy and only one third of it was detected.
The February 8 arrest of the 26-year-old man was not the first fake Rs 2,000 currency case unearthed in the country. However, with the introduction of these high quality fake notes -- as many as 11 of 17 security measures were replicated -- comes the fear of renewed impetus to terror funding, black money, hoarding and corruption, antithetical to PM Modi's demonetisation move.
