DB police arrested 4 with counterfeit money in Capital
Staff Correspondent: Dhaka, Feb-09,
A driver of the Department of Narcotics Control has been involved in a transnational currency forgery syndicate for a couple of years that used to smuggle counterfeit Indian rupees from Pakistan to Bangladesh and smuggle them to India.
His wife, who is a lawyer, used to help him in the crime.
The detective branch (DB) of police shared this information after arresting four people, including the duo, from the capital’s Hazaribagh and Demra areas over the last two days.
The arrestees are — Amanullah Bhuiyan (52), a government driver of the DNC in Sunamganj, his wife Kajal Rekha (37), Yasir Arafat Keramat (33), and Nomanur Rahman Khan (31).
“There are two families in Srinagar of Munshiganj who are assisting the counterfeit rupee smuggling. Most members of the families once lived in Pakistan. The arrestee Noman’s brother Fazlur Rahman currently lives in Karachi.
He used to collect high-quality counterfeit money from Pakistan-based criminals and send it to Bangladesh by sea or airways,” AKM Hafiz Akhter, additional commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told a press conference yesterday.
A part of a recently smuggled large consignment of counterfeit rupee was in the possession of Noman’s brother Saidur Rahman, importer Sheik Md Abu Taleb, and Fatema Akter Opy, who was arrested in November last year. At that time, police recovered fake Indian rupees of around Rs 7.30 crore from Fatema’s home in the capital’s Dakshinkhan.
The rest of the consignment was kept with DNC driver Amanullah, his wife Kajal Rekha, and Yasir, the DB official said, adding that fake notes of 15 lakh Indian rupees were recovered from their possession.
The DB official said that this counterfeit currency was called “super note” as the fake Indian rupees from Pakistan are made with such precision that they are close to the original notes.
The official said the syndicate prints fake Indian currency in Pakistan and then sends those to Sri Lanka by the sea in containers loaded with toys, dried fish, mosaic, and marble stones. From Sri Lanka, the containers are shipped to Chattogram port in Bangladesh.
The consignments are then sent to Dhaka by trucks with other goods. Then those are sent to Chapainawabganj through courier service and smuggled to India through members of their gang.
Hafiz Akhter said the investigation revealed that Fazlur Rahman’s brother Saidur Rahman, Nomanur Rahman, and brother-in-law Shafiqur Rahman were assisting in the smuggling. Aligned with the importers, they used to bring these rupees from Karachi port of Pakistan to Chattogram port via Sri Lanka.
They used to buy 1 lakh Indian rupees for Tk 38,000 and sold those at Tk 40,000-42,000. Money from the sale of counterfeit rupee was collected through various banks and later sent to Fazlur Rahman in Pakistan through hundi, the DB official said adding that they have got names of some Pakistani nationals associated with this racket.
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