Onus on banks to stay alert, act

They must hold meetings with customers, particularly traders and shopkeepers, regularly.

Seeing a surge in circulation of counterfeit currency notes in the capital, security agencies have asked banks to install fake Indian currency detector machines at their branch offices.

“The machine will not only help banks to detect fake currency on the spot while taking the amount, but will also help in tracing the origin of these currencies,” says a senior police officer.

Banks have also been asked to put up notices in the form of posters and pamphlets on how to detect fake notes at their branches. “This step will help in educating people to detect fake India currency notes easily,” says the officer.

Banks have been told to hold meetings with customers, particularly traders and shopkeepers, on a regular basis so that bank employees can educate and update them about the trend of fake Indian currency notes being circulated in the city, which sometimes is tough to detect.

Banks officials have asked petrol pump dealers, malls and shopping complexes to put up displays on detecting fake currency notes.

“Fake Indian currency notes are being circulated by perpetrators to destabilise the economy. They generally circulate fake notes in places where people are not much aware about them,” says the officer.

“Naive people accept the notes without checking them, and through them the notes reach banks.”

Security agencies say the basics of identifying fake notes should also be taught in schools across India as extracurricular classes. “The more people are aware, the more chances to detect at the source of origination increases,” says the officer.

In Delhi, detection of fake Indian currency notes in banks has increased compared to previous years. Banks, government and private ones, have found counterfeit notes worth Rs 32 lakh in the past six months.

On an average, in a year counterfeit currency detection in various branches of banks are Rs 28 lakh. But this time in just six months fake notes worth Rs 32 lakh were detected, says the officer. Counterfeit notes worth Rs 32 lakh were detected in just seven banks that have approached police. 

“In total, 14 leading banks were asked to register such cases and submit the detected fake Indian currency notes. But this half-yearly, from July 2012 to January 2013, only seven have come up,” says the officer.

Police also found that notes of Rs 1,000 domination are more in circulation than Rs 500 ones. To tackle the menace at the surface level, Delhi Police have made a police station as a nodal agency for banks to register cases related to fake currency notes.

“Earlier, banks used to register cases related to counterfeit money at any police station in the city, making it difficult for us to compile data and work on the cases,” says the officer.

“Now, Parliament Street police station has been made the nodal agency where all banks register cases related to fake Indian currency notes.”

Police have asked bank representatives to check the trend of influx of fake Indian currency notes in various branches, which will help them deal with such cases.