The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence’s (DRI) Bangalore unit, which seized the notes, in the denomination of Rs 1,000, found after initial investigations that the source of the forged currency notes was Pakistan.
“The 500 Rs 1,000 notes seized Sunday originated in Pakistan where they were manufactured, but reached Bangalore via the Gulf (Dubai),” DRI sources told Deccan Herald.
They also said that the smugglers have begun taking the Gulf route and do not push in counterfeit notes directly from Pakistan to avoid detection at land border points and airports where vigilance is strict.
“Interrogation of the arrested person, who was produced in court and subsequently remanded to judicial custody revealed that bringing in fake currency via the Gulf is relatively easy,” sources said.
The latest seizure and those made over the past two years indicate that Bangalore and a few other southern cities, including in Kerala, is new route smugglers are using to push in fake currency “with the aim to destabilise the Indian economy”.
Another source to funnel in the counterfeit notes is Bangladesh. The couriers, in this case, sources said, use the route via the border district of Malda in West Bengal.
While there have been several seizures over the last few years, sources recollected that Rs 50 lakh fake currency seized last year. One of the largest seizures Customs sleuths made was of fake Rs 72 lakh in Kerala in 2008.
It is difficult for scanners at airports to detect forged notes, while smugglers also find it convenient to use the land route (Bangladesh to Malda) to pump in fake currency.
Further, officials said that coordinated investigation, involving other agencies, including the Reserve Bank of India, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID), has been initiated after Sunday’s arrest.
“Although the arrested person was thoroughly interrogated, he did not have any information on where exactly in Pakistan the fake notes were manufactured or who handed him the notes when it came in from Dubai,” DRI sources said.