Indian rupee made in Pakistan
Indian rupee made in Pakistan
Cops find Bangladeshi gangs use fake currencies in illegal border trade
Bangladesh is used as a transit route for counterfeit Indian rupees by illegal traders along the border areas, detectives have found.
A gang of traders print the fake bills in Pakistan and India and then pass them to their Bangladeshi agents, who take care of the subsequent transactions, said the Detective Branch (DB) of police.
The revelation was made after Mokhlesur Rahman, 52, was arrested by the DB from the capital's Norda area on Saturday night with forged bills worth 1.50 lakh Indian rupees, said Jahangir Alam, assistant commissioner of the DB.
In primary interrogation, Mokhlesur told police that he has been in stone extraction business in Zakiganj of Shylhet, where he lives.
Besides his main business, he used to work as a "carrier" of fake Indian currency which is high in demand among illegal cow traders, smugglers and narcotics dealers along the India-Bangladesh border in Sylhet area, the DB official told The Daily Star.
"He collects the fake notes from agents in Chapainawabganj and carries them via Dhaka to agents in Sylhet. The agents then sell those to illegal traders who use the forged bills to pay the traders on the other side of the border," said Jahangir Alam.
"The notes are perhaps printed in Pakistan and India and transferred through Bangladesh as the gang operatives find the country safer with less risks of being caught," police said, quoting Mokhlesur.
"Since the fake notes are used among illicit trades, it is never reported, making it difficult for police to bust the gangs," he added.
"Mokhlesur used Chapainawabganj-Dhaka-Shylhet as his route. We arrested him while he was waiting in Norda for a bus to Sylhet, after collecting the forged notes from Chapainawabganj" said the DB official.
Rahman also admitted there were several other "carriers" who used different routes for transporting fake currencies. He, however, could not specify the number of people or gangs involved in this illegal trade.
The arrestee on Sunday was produced before a Dhaka court, which placed him on a two-day remand.