New Delhi, May 06: Growing wise with experience, Pakistan, it appears, has adopted a new way to paralyse our economy. Instead of sending big consignments of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) across the border, it is now trying to inject small doses of FICN to avoid suspicion and loss.
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Recent seizures across the country suggest agents bringing FICN from across the border are carrying small quantities as compared to the past.
“Carriers who have been interrogated recently claimed the quantity of FICN handed over to them across the border is being purposefully kept low,” a senior CBI officer probing FICN smuggling said.
He said several cases of FICN smuggling detected of late by law enforcement agencies, including the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI), Border Security Force and police, had shown this trend.
Consignments in the range of 1,000 to 5,000 or even 50,000 serve several purposes for Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). To begin with, it reduces loss significantly in the event of a seizure.
“Besides, it is easier to circulate small quantities in the market. It doesn’t raise suspicion and consequently, reduces the risk of detection,” a senior DRI officer said.
ISI has also changed the routes of smuggling.
Traditionally, India’s porous borders with Nepal and Bangladesh and routes in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir have been used for FICN smuggling. But now, southern states are also reportedly being used. Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have reported several FICN seizures recently.
Following some startling recoveries last year, Reserve Bank of India had pressed the panic button. It had discovered that FICN were hardly distinguishable from the genuine ones. This forced the government to sit up and take a serious note of the issue.
In December, it formed a committee under the national security council secretariat to supervise preparation of an “economic terror dossier”, which is likely to detail available evidence about Pakistan’s attempts at destabilising the Indian economy.
—Agencies