Joynal Abedin Khan :
Fake notes amounting to Tk 15 crore have been circulated in different markets across the country, specially in the capital and major cities, in the first two last two weeks of Ramzan.
At least 25 gangs are active crime of which 15 are based in Dhaka alone, detective official sources said.
The gangsters have already started releasing fake notes and spreading these in markets through their recruited agents, they said.
“Several gangs are set to circulate the notes worth Tk nine crore this Eid. The materials and equipment needed for producing the notes were found in the gangs’ possession,” Mnirul Islam, Joint Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) told the media.
They come with mostly Tk100, Tk 500, and Tk 1,000 notes that are widely used during festival seasons like Eid, Puja and different fairs and celebrations, he said.
The common people are easily cheated during transactions with the forged notes due to lack of detection machines and proper awareness, police sources said.
They said that over the last two weeks, at least seven gangs were busted in Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet with a huge amount of fake notes, of Tk 500 and 1000 denominations, and equipment used for printing those, they said.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) detained five members of a fake currency making gang and seized counterfeit notes of around Tk 1.048 crore in Banasri residential area of Dhaka on Sunday, said Major Maksud, Deputy Director of Media Wing of the elite force.
The seized materials were enough to print forged notes worth around Tk 10 crore, said the RAB official.
Sources said that the gang made two types of fake notes, one is printed note and the other is made using original notes.
On June 25, Rapid Action Battalion arrested three alleged racketeers in Sylhet and recovered 10,000 fake notes of Tk 10 lakh.
On June 14, police had arrested six of a similar gang with Tk five million of counterfeit notes from Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
In separate drives, detective police arrested six people with fake notes of Tk50 lakh of the capital’s Mirpur on the day.
On June 8, detectives arrested six suspected members of a money forgery syndicate, including a woman, and seized counterfeit notes worth about Tk 50 lakh from their possession in Mirpur area.
June 19, CID police seized fake stamps worth about Tk 60.66 crore from a printing press in Lalkuthi area in the capital.
With an apprehension that the counterfeit notes may flood the market as it happens every year, independent MP Haji Mohammad Selim recently in the parliament demanded formation of a special tribunal against the business.
Over 5,000 cases related with fake notes are now pending in courts, Haji Selim told the parliament.
He regretted that these criminals are hardly punished for their illegal activity.
Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Haque said that directives had been issued already to the law enforcers to combat the crime, including fake money transaction.
“We have also held talks with the shop owners and asked them to install fake note detection devices,” he added.
“Our intelligence report suggests that the gangs of counterfeiters have become very active ahead of Eid,” the IGP said.
“The increase of fake note business is nothing new. The law enforcing agencies remain alert and conduct drives in uniforms and plain clothes,” said Monirul Islam, Joint Commissioner at DMP.
Most of them, now freed on bail, have become involved again with the illegal activities, he said
RAB Legal and Media Wing Director Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan said that the elite force has arrested over 1,700 money counterfeiters and recovered fake notes equivalent to seven crore in Bangladeshi taka, five crore in Indian rupees, and 300,000 US dollars in last nine years.
The retailers circulate the notes when buying goods while some of them circulate the notes through a section of unscrupulous staff of banks and ATM booths, he claimed.
