Staff Reporter :
Many a fake taka manufacturing gangs are active across the country targeting the transactions at the cattle markets, source said.
The criminals use computer technology and chemicals for manufacturing fake notes of Tk 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 denominations, and use their relatives and poor women for marketing those.
There are more than one hundred fake currencies manufacturing gangs, who take the service of expert money minting masters.
The best places for marketing fake notes are cattle markets, which are organized on the occasion of the Eid-Ul-Azha.
Detective Police detained six persons manufacturing fake currency notes and seized counterfeit notes of around Tk 1.20 crore from their possession in Mirpur area of Dhaka on August 31night.
A team of Detective Branch of police also seized various equipments used for producing fake notes, said a short message service (SMS) floated by Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
In recent time, the law enforces have identified eight upazilas near international borders namely Chakaria of Cox’s Bazar, Ishwardi of Pabna, Ashashuni of Satkhira, Kamalganj of Moulvibazar, Babuganj of Barisal, Ranisankail of Thakurgaon, Gafargaon of Mymensingh, and Khetlal of Joypurhat where fake notes are manufacturing.
Sources said, there are two ways of forging currency. One is by printing scanned images of real notes onto high quality paper with gum and security ribbons.
The other one is by using the “washing system,” whereby Tk 100 notes are washed with a special kind of liquid, and the numbers are changed to give it the appearance of a Tk 500 note.
One bundle of forged notes worth Tk 50,000 is sold at Tk 5,000-10,000 to wholesalers. Then retailers buy those at Tk 10,000-15,000 and sell these fake notes to such person as cheat the uneducated, poor and elderly.
It costs only Tk 1,500 to manufacture Tk 1,00,000 forged notes. The fake notes makers had bought a laptop and a colour printer worth Tk 80,000 to run the illegal business.
An official of DB said that the fake notes manufacturers use to purchase new notes of Tk 100 denomination from Gulistan and different banks in the city at a much higher rate and remove the print on the note by boiling it in chemical-mixed water.
He said after removing the print, they reprint the features of a Tk 500 on the washed paper and release the fake notes in markets through their partners, especially women in veils.
He said some 5,468 cases have been lodged with different police stations across the country since 1998, of which 1,234 cases only have been resolved to date.
Ziauddin Ahmed, Managing Director of Securities Printing Corporation (Bangladesh) Ltd, said people should learn the security measure big of notes, as law enforcers and the central bank alone cannot stop counterfeiting.
He said “An easy way to demarcate fake notes from the good ones is the inscription printed on the top right corner on both sides of Tk 100, 500 and 1,000 denominations. If the notes are held vertically, the colour of the inscription changes from magenta to green or the other way round.”
Zia Rahman, Chairman of the Department of Criminology, Dhaka University, said, a separate law is a must to prevent the circulation of fake notes in the market.
He said the law enforcing agencies have arrested a number of gangs in last few years, but the criminals have been acquitted from the cases because of absence of a strong law.
A high official of police said that they had found counterfeit currencies in the ATM booths and vaults of some commercial banks while carrying out their regular inspections.
“A section of unscrupulous bank officials and security agency staff are allegedly involved with circulation of fake currency notes through the ATMs by having nexus with counterfeit currency minting networks,” he said.
He said a special team of DB, DMP is working hard to get hold of the gangs who are involved in spreading counterfeit currencies in the capital city.
