NIA court sentences 3 to jail in fake currency case

New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) A special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Kolkata has sent the main accused in the Kaliachak fake currency notes case to 10 years rigorous imprisonment.

The court also sentenced five years' rigorous imprisonment to two accomplices of the main accused Anarul Islam.

The Kaliachak case goes back to the year 2016 when Anarul Islam, who belongs to Chapainawabganj in Bangladesh, was accused of cross-border trafficking of fake Indian currency notes. In January 2016, West Bengal police and personnel of Border Security Force had seized Rs 8 lakh fake Indian currency from Anarul Islam from Kaliachak Chowranghee in Malda district of West Bengal.

The NIA court convicted Anarul Islam and his accomplices, Ripon of Malda and Fatima alias Litchi of Agra, on Thursday. All three accused have been imposed penalties of Rs 10,000 each apart from the prison terms.

According to an NIA official, it was found during investigations that the three accused and their associates had hatched a criminal conspiracy for procuring and circulating fake Indian currency notes in India.

Investigations also revealed that the accused and their associates were active in trafficking huge quantities of counterfeit currency into India for long.

"It was learnt that Anarul Islam had visited Malda on many occasions and received take currencies from his associates based there. The counterfeit currency notes were procured from Bangladesh via the international border to be circulated in other parts of the country," said the official.