Two held in Barpeta with fake currency

GUWAHATI: Two persons were arrested along with fake Indian currency notes (FICN) from the Barpeta road area, some 95 km from here, on Friday.
"One of them was identified as Ruleka Khatun. About 400 fake notes of Rs 500 were seized from them," a police officer said.
Sources said the two had confessed to procuring the fake notes from an agent in Bihar.They added that the duo had been asked to give the notes to some other agents.
"In many cases, FICN racketeers are found to be involved in cattle smuggling and even funding militancy in the region. Investigation will reveal more details," the officer added.
Usually, a consignment of fake notes worth Rs 1 lakh is smuggled into the state in exchange of Rs 60,000 worth of real notes. Thus, when agents supply these notes to the market, they get a flat 40% cut on every lot.
The couriers, after acquiring the FICNs from their counterparts in Bangladesh or Pakistan, pump them into Assam. Later, a separate batch of couriers, mostly hired on low payment, circulate them in major towns of the state like Dibrugarh, Tezpur, Bongaigaon and various parts of the Barak Valley.
Earlier, Assam Police sources had hinted at the involvement of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) linkmen in FICN rackets in the region.
"On several occasions, police have found a nexus between FICN couriers, JMB linkmen and cattle smugglers," a source said.
Last week, jawans of BSF's Guwahati Frontier caught a suspected Bangladeshi infiltrator involved in an FICN racket in Dhubri district. Fake notes were also found on him.
The terror funding and fake currency cell of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been asked to unearth FICN rackets in the country. The cell will also suggest ways to bring in changes in currency notes to check duplication.
"Most FICN cases have been reported from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh," said an NIA official.