NEWS reports in national dailies on Wednesday said detective police have arrested six criminals of a gang of counterfeit currency trading syndicate from the city’s Mirpur area on the previous day. As the holy month Ramadan is in the corner and the Eid festival is heating up the market, the fake currency traders have become active to cheat businessmen and ordinary people in the streets. So there must be vigilance at all levels to protect innocent people from the frauds. There is no alternative to it in market places. In the raid police have not only detained the gang members, they have also seized huge stock of fake currency notes and papers and portable machineries they were using to make the fake currency notes using residential shelters.
Police claimed they have recovered around Tk 50 lakhs from the gang members who were planning to produce at least Tk 5 crore with the seized materials in their hand. Acting on a tip-off, the detectives conducted the raid at a house in the locality and arrested the culprits. They said those culprits were also arrested earlier for producing fake currency and its circulation in the country. But they were set free on bail to engage in the criminal act again. As per police disclosure, the gang operates in several fronts — one group prepares and supplies papers while another group prints the counterfeit notes. The third group circulates it in the market. They sell the spurious notes of taka one lakh to wholesale buyers for Tk 10,000 to Tk 15,000. The wholesalers sell to retailers for Tk 15,000 to Tk 25,000. The retailers circulate in the markets by way of buying goods and even injecting it into banking channel. With this arrest, at least 47 people involved in the crime were arrested in last one year and it is suspected that most of them have gone back the crime again after securing bail. Their ‘devil net’ is reportedly having the nexus with certain political leaders, law enforcers and even at lower judiciary.
So, people tend to believe that arresting counterfeit note makers and traders or bursting their printing facilities don’t produce any sustainable solutions to stop the gang from destabilizing the money market. It is advisable that the government, for ensuring public safety and stable monetary market, should increase the awareness of the masses with promoting their capacity to understand and distinguish the genuine note from a fake one in the first place. Moreover, prevention of forgery should concentrate on striking at the roots, rather dismantling the cobwebs of manufacturing to marketing. In the essence, the focus should be shifted on unsuspecting presenters of fake currencies along with destroying the visible den of the criminal gangs. Police know them and they are enough to destroy them.
