New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has refused bail to a person allegedly part of a syndicate that prints and circulates fake Indian currency notes, saying that it not only cripples the economy but also breeds drug smuggling and funds undesirable terrorist outfits.
Justice Subramonium Prasad stated that the circulation of fake currency notes adversely affected the financial health of the nation and that fake production has reached such a level of immaculate sophistication that they have become indistinguishable from real currency notes and have become a high profiteering business.
The circulation of fake currency notes is severely detrimental to the economy and hampers the financial regulation of the country. The production of counterfeit currency notes often stems from dissatisfaction with a country's growth, and is, therefore, aimed at financially disintegrating and destabilising the steady equilibrium of liquidity in the economy.
"Counterfeiting of currency notes breeds drug smuggling, purchase of illegal arms and ammunition, funding of undesirable terrorist outfits, cross-border money laundering, human trafficking and various other phenomena. It has a disastrous effect on the economy, the judge said in his order dated August 23.
He added that Sections 489A, 489B, 489C, 489D and 489E of the Indian Penal Code, which deal with offences pertaining to fake currency, were specially inserted by the legislature to protect the economy of the country. In the present case, the court noted, the petitioner accused was apprehended by police following secret information that a Dubai-based Pakistani national was trying to bring fake Indian currency notes in the country.
The petitioner was arrested in a raid with fake Indian currency notes with a face value of Rs 44,000 and a syndicate of procurement, printing, circulation and distribution of fake Indian currency notes was unearthed, it further recorded.
Dismissing the bail plea, the court observed that the petitioner is a part of the well-oiled machinery/syndicate dealing in printing and circulation of fake currency notes and it has the propensity of having a disastrous effect on the country's economy. "The petitioner is alleged of committing an extremely serious offence which has the effect of crippling the economy of the country," the court said.
The petitioner has been found in possession of Fake Indian Currency Notes and the purpose of these fake currency notes was meant for circulation lest there is no point in having counterfeit currency notes. The maximum punishment for an offence under Section 489D is imprisonment for life. This Court is, therefore, not inclined to grant bail to the petitioner at this stage, he added.
The court also considered that charges in the bail were yet to be framed and the chances of the petitioner absconding or continuing to indulge in the same activity on release could not be ruled out at this juncture.
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PTI
