By Biswanath Dash
BHUBANESWAR: STF Odisha, in a significant operation against organized racket of printing/circulating Fake Indian Currency Notes, conducted raidson 01.09.2023nearUlunda, Sonepur and seized good quality Fake Indian Currency Notes of face value more than Rs 41.16 Lakh.One accused person namely Deepak Meher, S/o.BhusanMeher of Matikhai Nuabasti PS. Ulunda of Sonepur was arrested and forwarded to the Court of JMFC, Birmaharajpur.
In this connection STF PS CaseNo.18 dated 02.09.2023 U/s. 489-A/489-B/489-C/120(B) IPC was registered. The seized FICN Notes will be sent to Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudrana Pvt. Ltd.,Mudrana Nagar, Salaboni, Pachima Medinapore, West Bengal for examination and opinion. The seized FICN are of the denominations of Rs 500 and meet many security features of a genuine note.
However STF will add UAPA (Unlawful activities Prevention Act) sections after getting 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. STF has got the vital clues and working on it to crack the entire scam and arrest all the perpetrators.
Till date STF has seized FICN of face value more than Rs 1.19 Crores including thisseizure. However, earlier FICN were of low quality. In fact in the recent years, allFICN seized in Odisha were of low quality.
General Information
Offences related to counterfeit/ fake currency notes were added in Indian penal Code (Sections 489A to 489 D & E) in 1943.The offences related to counterfeiting of currency notes also come under the scheduled offences in NIA Act, 2008.NIA is also the nodal authority for FICN matters in India.
After the amendment of UAPA Act (Unlawful activities prevention Act) in 2013,dealing with High quality FICN has been categorized as a “Terrorist act” if the valueof seized notes is more than Rs one lakh and matches some other conditions.
Seized FICN are of high quality or not is decided by notified forensic authorities onlylike– Bhartiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran private limited, Salboni, Kharagpur,West bengal.- Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited, Nasik road,Maharashtra..- Other Authorized Forensic Laboratories. Security Features to define High quality counterfeit/ fake Indian Currency Notes-1. Watermark2. Security Thread3. And anyone of the following features- Latent Image- See Through Registration- Print Quality Sharpness- Raised Effect- Fluorescent Characteristic- Substrate Quality
– Paper Taggant– Colour Shift Effect in OVI- Colour Shift Effect in Security Thread
