DNC driver caught in fake currency racket: DB

A driver of Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) has been reportedly involved in a transnational currency forgery syndicate for a couple of years.

The group would smuggle counterfeit Indian rupees from Pakistan to Bangladesh, and then to India. The driver's wife, who is a lawyer, used to help him.

Detective Branch (DB) of police shared this information, after arresting four people, including the couple, from the capital's Hazaribagh and Demra areas in the last two days.

The arrestees are Amanullah Bhuiyan (52), the government driver of DNC in Sunamganj, his wife Kajal Rekha (37), Yasir Arafat Keramat (33) and Nomanur Rahman Khan (31).

"Two families in Munshiganj's Srinagar have been assisting the smuggling. Most members of the families used to live in Pakistan. Arrestee Noman's brother, Fazlur Rahman, currently lives in Karachi," AKM Hafiz Akhter, additional commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told a press conference yesterday.

"He would collect high-quality counterfeit currencies from mafia groups operating there and send it to Bangladesh by sea or airway," he said.

Earlier, police seized Rs 7.30 crore-worth of fake currency notes from the racket in the capital's Dakshinkhan in November last year. The rest of the fake notes, worth Rs 15 lakh, were kept with arrestees Amanullah, Rekha and Yasir, and were  seized later on.

The official said the syndicate prints the notes in Pakistan and sends them to Sri Lanka by sea in containers loaded with toys, dried fish, mosaic and marble stones. From Sri Lanka, the containers are shipped to Chattogram port. The consignments are then sent to Dhaka by trucks, and then to Chapainawabganj through courier service, and are finally smuggled to India through members of the gang.