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New Delhi: A special NIA court in West Bengal has sentenced one more accused to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in a case pertaining to a seizure of fake Indian currency in the state four years ago, an official said on Tuesday.
With this, the total number of convictions in the case has gone up to three.
Akramul, a resident of West Bengal's Malda district, has been sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 10,000 under different sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) . He has also been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 10,000 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a spokesperson of the federal agency said.
The official said the special NIA court in Kolkata held Akramul guilty of the charge and passed the sentences, which shall run concurrently.
A special task force at the Lalbazar Street police station in Kolkata registered an FIR against Akramul and Senaul Sheikh alias 'Senaul' on January 22, 2020, following a seizure of a huge quantity of high-quality Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs) in the denomination of Rs 500.
The subsequent questioning of Senaul led to the arrest of the third accused, Enamul Hoque, on February 1, 2020, along with the seizure of more fake currency notes in the denominations of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500.
The case was taken over and re-registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in March 2020 and investigations by the agency led to the arrest of a fourth accused.
The NIA spokesperson said all the four accused had hatched a criminal conspiracy for procuring and circulating high-quality FICNs with the intention to use those for unlawful gains.
The trial against one of the accused is still continuing, the official said.