Fake currency notes of Rs 3 lakh face value recovered in Kolkata, one arrested

Kolkata (The Uttam Hindu): Fake currency notes having a face value of Rs three lakh were recovered from a bus depot in Kolkata on Thursday and one person was arrested in this connection. The accused was identified as Manwar Sheikh, a resident of Kaliachak in Malda district. According to the Special Task Force of Kolkata Police, the seized Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) were in Rs 500 denomination. The investigating officials suspect that the seized consignment came to Malda from Bangladesh and Sheikh brought it to Kolkata either for distribution in the city or to hand it over to another person.

The cops of STF are interrogating him to get details of others involved in the racket. The seizure was made after a tip-off about a huge consignment of FICN coming from Malda to Kolkata via an overnight bus to Esplanade in Kolkata. Accordingly, plain-dress cops reached the said bus depot and waited for the said vehicle to arrive. As soon as the bus arrived, the STF officials, based on the description provided by their sources, detailed Sheikh and started interrogating him. At the same time, the luggage he was carrying was thoroughly frisked leading to the recovery of the FICN consignment.

The accused person will be presented at a city court later in the day and the public prosecutor will seek his custody for further interrogations, sources in the city police said. To recall, just a few months back, a special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Kolkata, had sentenced seven persons to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for their involvement in a cross-border FICN racket. The eighth accused person in the case, Abdul Rahim, identified as a Bangladeshi citizen, was still at large.