Old Delhi under police radar for fake currency racket

After getting intelligence inputs about crore of fake Indian currency has been pumped in the national capital, the Delhi Police is keeping a tab on wholesale markets to break the counterfeiter network that spans from Karachi in Pakistan to Chandni Chowk.

Intelligence Bureau (IB) sources said Iqbal Kana, who shifted his base to Lahore in Pakistan in 2001 and is suspected to push at least a thousand crore of fake currency into the country, has a tremendous presence in Old Delhi area.

Kana, who is originally a resident of Kairana at Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pardesh, operates a fancy items’ shop in Lahore.

 Police came to know about him on January 12 after the Special Cell had seized Rs 2.84 crore in denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1000. The notes were suspected to have been printed at a government press in Karachi.

Kana is also believed to have a good network among Old Delhi traders whose goods are mainly brought into India through train and the land routes of the Poonch area.

“As these traders deal in wholesale goods, lot of amounts change hands in the form of payments. In many cases, fake currency is passed off as real and then makes its way into the smaller markets,” said a police officer.

Police have intensified vigilance in central Delhi’s area. They have advised the traders and shopkeepers to stay alert and report any such incident.  

Police are also keeping a close eye on everyone from dealers to money exchangers operating in these wholesale markets.

On the other hand, the Indian Bank situated at Chandni Chowk had registered a case regarding counterfeit notes found at their various offices in the national capital last week. The notes were detected by note sorting machine.

The bank found Rs 1.7 lakh fake notes in which maximum numbers of notes were of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 dominations.