Bhubaneswar: In a major operation against the organised racket of printing/circulating fake Indian currency notes (FICN) conducted Friday last near Ulunda in Sonepur, The Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Crime Branch seized fake currency notes of the face value of more than Rs 41.16 lakh. The STF also arrested one accused person, Deepak Meher, son of Bhusan Meher of Matikhai Nuabasti under Ulunda police limits of Odisha’s Sonepur district, and forwarded him to the Court of JMFC, Birmaharajpur.
A case has been registered in this connection at the STF police station. The seized fake currency notes will be sent to the Reserve Bank Note Mudrana Pvt. Ltd. at Mudrana Nagar in Salaboni, Pachima Medinapore in West Bengal for examination and expert opinion.
The seized FICN are of the denomination of Rs 500 and meet several security features of a genuine note. However, the STF will add UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) sections after getting an official forensic report as to whether these notes are of high quality or not.
It is suspected that these notes were brought from Chhattisgarh. There are more criminals involved in this racket. The STF has got vital clues and working on it to crack the entire scam and arrest all the perpetrators.
To date, STF has seized FICN of the face value of more than Rs 1.19 crore including this seizure. However, earlier FICN seized were of low quality. In fact, in recent years, all FICN seized in Odisha were of low quality.
