Illegal Rs 1K notes look too real, baffle cops for a while

Breach 7 of 8 RBI security features

The next time you think you are a good detector of fake currencies circulating in the market, observe the notes again. The latest supply of fake Rs 1,000 currency notes in the National Capital Region are of “such good quality” that only those people who deal with huge sums of money everyday can catch the defect.

Except for one security feature, the manufacturers of these new currencies have been able to correctly duplicate all other seven features. “Till now we used to find breaches in only four features. Unlike earlier, a layman can rarely catch these notes,” K P S Malhotra, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime (North), told Deccan Herald. 

However, the counterfeit detector machines are capable of detecting the fault, he said.In the latest catch by the Crime Branch, only the green security thread with ‘Bharat’ and ‘RBI’ inscriptions were not accurate. “The green thread in these currencies is marginally thicker than original. But very few people can catch the difference,” said Ravindra Yadav, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime).

“There are eight security features on the original Rs 1,000 note. These notes, circulated by Iqbal Kana in Pakistan, have come so close to duplicating the notes without any error,” said Yadav.

In fact, when the Crime Branch of Delhi Police recovered Rs 4.5 lakh worth of fake notes on Saturday, they were taken aback by the catch. They thought they had made a mistake. “Our team was confused after arresting three persons with the money. We thought we had made a mistake,” said Malhotra.

The Crime Branch had last year seized Rs 9,70,000 worth of fake currency notes. Almost half of that amount has already been recovered within 11 days since the start of this year. A senior police officer estimated that currently 10 per cent of all money circulating in the National Capital Region is fake currency. 

The officer said a lot of these new nearly accurate currencies are already circulating in the market and much more are expected to be flowing in the near future.

The flow-in is through the porous borders India share with Nepal and Bangladesh, said Yadav. He said that investigations have revealed Pakistan’s Iqbal Kana to be behind the supply that is meant to “fund terrorism and destabilise India”.

The Reserve Bank of India is aware of these breaches of the security features and is working to improve it, Yadav said, adding that the Indian government is also making efforts to stem the illegal supply of good quality ink and materials that is helping Pakistan make such good quality notes.

Meanwhile, interrogation of the accused revealed that the value of the fake Rs 1,000 notes in Pakistan is only Rs 200. In Nepal and Bangladesh, the value goes up to Rs 400. 

“As soon it enters the Indian territory, the value goes up by another Rs 100. The final value settles at Rs 700 before it is circulated in Delhi NCR,” said Yadav, adding that Rs 200 profit on dissemination of each note easily draws the “couriers” like those arrested on Saturday.