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The Central Bureau of Investigation today asked the cooperation
of the State Governments, Central
Police Organisations, Intelligence Agencies and Reserve Bank
of India in the efforts to curb the menace of
circulation of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs). While inaugurating
a workshop of FICN scenario here
today, the Director of CBI, Shri U.S. Misra said that the
cooperation could be in many ways, including
collection of criminal intelligence and apprehension of the
accused. Shri Misra regretted that unlike in some of
the developing countris, India does not have the concept of
federal offence, therefore, CBI cannot take up any
case suo-moto, adding that the investigating agency requires
State consent before taking up cases for
investigation. He said that states in turn could benefit from
the CBI expertise through knowledge sharing,
training and in the matters of extradition and mutual legal
assistance.
Speaking about the problem of counterfeiting of currency notes
in the country, the CBI Director said
that until recent times, counterfeiting remained one of the
minor offences and seldom received attention of
senior officers. However, certain disturbing developments
during the past have brought this problem to the
centre stage and it has captured the attention of the top
echelons of the law enforcement agencies, he added.
Shri Misra said that technology developments in drawing, design
and printing, advances in computer
hardware/software have facilitated production of fake currency
in quality and large quantities and the ease with
which counterfeiting is being done has contributed to the
rise in the magnitude of circulation. He said that the
Naik Committee estimation puts the number of fake currency
notes in circulation to 61,000 millions pieces
valued at Rs.1,69,000/- crore till the year 2000. Compared
to this, the average seizure of FICNs remain around
Rs. 6-7 crore per year. Compared to this, the average seizure
of FICNs remain around Rs.6.7 crore per year.
Such a huge gap in estimated circulation and seizures offers
serious challenge to the law enforcement
agencies. The Director, CBI said that more than the high magnitude
of circulation of the FICNs, is the impact
of this crime on the society which is more disturbing. He
said that the Intelligence inputs and evidence from
the investigations have revealed that organised international
group of criminals based abroad, particularly in our
neighborhood, have of late taken up the activities of printing
and circulation of FICNs with a view to financing
terrorists, trafficking of drug, smuggling in arms and explosives
for the purpose of destabilization of the
economy of the country. He pointed out that information obtained
from different sources suggest that Pakistan
based racketeers are pushing fake currency into India through
a wide network of their associates based in
Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, Dubai and India. The situation
calls for upgradation of competencies, forensic
techniques and free exchange of information and evaluating
a joint strategy to tackle this crime, Shri Misra
said.
The workshop which is the third in the series of meeting and
workshops that has been organised by
CBI in the last two years, is being attended by law enforcement
officers from Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat,
Chhatisgarh, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and representatives from
Ministries of Home Affairs and Finance and
from BSF, NCRB, BPR&D, IB, SSB, DRI, RAW, Directorate
of Forensic Science, Delhi and Reserve Bank of
India. CBI successfully organised the first conference of
the concerned agencies in collaboration with the
Reserve Bank of India on the 25th of November, 2003. Subsequently,
the first workshop was conducted by the
investigating agency in March,2004. Realising the importance
of the problem of fake currency, CBI has set up
a special branch within it to tackle the crime of FICNs.
The Ministry of Home Affairs on its part, recognising the
seriousness of this problem
advised the States and UTs to nominate one of their offices
to act as a Nodal agency to monitor investigation
of cases of counterfeiting currency. It has also asked the
States to entrust the investigation of those fake
currency cases to CBI, where there is definite indication
that the currency seized is brought from across the
border, the seizure has security ramifications or the seizure
is large. Besides, Allahabad High Court while
considering a Writ Petition has expressed serious concern
about the large number of fake currency cases in
the country and has directed the Union Ministry of Finance
to get the details of such cases from all States and
after scrutiny forward the same to CBI for in-depth investigation.
Recently, CBI has also addressed letters to
all Nodal officers for intimating the details of cases as
per the Ministry of Home Affairs circular of May,2002 so
that those could be considered for transfer in view of the
observations of the Allahabad High Court.
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