New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday said it has arrested an alleged fake Indian currency note (FICN) operative, wanted in a 2019 case, from Kolkata in West Bengal. The 34-year-old Sariful Islam was arrested Monday and produced before a special NIA court in Kolkata and his transit remand was taken for his further production before a Lucknow court, a spokesperson for the federal agency said Tuesday.
The agency says Islam, a resident of Malda district in West Bengal, was wanted in connection with a December 2019 case of recovery of "high quality" FICN having the total face value of Rs 2,49,500. The recovery was effected in the Ghaziabad district by the Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorist squad (ATS) from a man called Mohammad Murad Alam, the spokesperson said. The NIA took over the case in February 2020 and subsequently filed a chargesheet against three accused Alam, Tausif Alam and Shahnawaj Ansari.
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"All the accused were members of a FICN racket in which fake currency was being sourced from across the Bangladesh border. Murad Alam had received the FICN consignment from Tausif Alam and had carried the consignment to deliver to accused Ansari," the spokesperson said in a statement issued here. The probe found, the spokesperson claimed, that the FICN consignment was supplied to Tausif Alam by Islam who has "cross-border contacts" in Bangladesh from where he used to procure the FICN.
(PTI)
