Fake Currency Smugglers Spread Their Wings in Northeast and AP

New Delhi, Mar 22 : West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have become more sensitive for security agencies in the last six months than states along the Indo-Pak border with intelligence agencies nabbing a larger number of couriers with fake Indian currency notes (FICN) and drug parcels in these states than the traditionally preferred J&K, Punjab and Rajasthan corridor.

States like West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, UP, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Chhattisgarh now account for the most number of arrests.

Seizures are generally considered a very small fraction of the actual smuggling, accounting for less than 10%. According to figures compiled by the government, West Bengal couriers were caught with over Rs 60 lakh, the highest FICN seizure among all states between July and December 2009.

Andhra Pradesh stood second with seizure of Rs 50 lakh. The other substantial FICN seizure was made in Punjab (Rs 49 lakh), Maharashtra (Rs 33 lakh), UP (Rs 32 lakh), TN (Rs 25 lakh), Assam (Rs 20 lakh), Gujarat (Rs 12 lakh) and Chhattisgarh (Rs 9 lakh).

Intelligence agencies have often found these couriers carrying arms and explosives such as high-grade RDX along with FICN consignments at the behest of terror masterminds in Pakistan. The couriers also act as feeder to various terror sleeper cells in the country as revealed during investigations in many of these cases.

A high-level committee headed by the home secretary and comprising officials of central agencies and police officials constantly monitor these issues and draw strategies to counter the rising menace. Similar monitoring bodies have also been set up in states comprising of police and intelligence officials.

Petrapole on the Indo-Bangladesh border is considered the most active for smuggling of contraband and other jihadi activities. A heightened surveillance is mounted at these places by security agencies.

The seizure revealed all the notes were of fine quality using the same inks that were used in RBI currency notes. In all the cases, the seized notes were of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations.

Drug consignments, mainly heroin of Afghanistan-make, is smuggled into India while many Indian pharmaceutical preparations are smuggled out of the country to Bangladesh and Myanmar.