Agartala, Nov 11 (IANS) The police in Mizoram and Tripura have busted an international racket in fake Indian currency and have arrested six people, including a Myanmarese national and a local bank manager, officials said Sunday.
“Acting on a tip-off, the Mizoram and Tripura police launched a joint raid and arrested the six people Friday and Saturday from Mamit district of Mizoram and North Tripura district, and recovered fake (Indian) currency notes worth Rs.196,000 in Rs.100 denomination,” Tripura police spokesman Nepal Das said.
The arrested people include Pauzakham, a Burmese national, Nikkilal Sangliana, State Bank of India (SBI) Mamit district branch manager, Karim Mia, a resident of North Tripura district, Gachiram Reang, a Tripura government employee, and two youths of North Tripura district.
The police have also recovered some documents and important information of the Central Bank of Bangladesh from them.
According to the police, Karim Mia and Nikkilal Sangliana are the two kingpins involved in the counterfeit India currency circulation racket.
“Such kind of joint raids of the Tripura, Mizoram and Assam police would continue as the police have more information about such rackets in the entire northeastern region and adjoining areas,” said North Tripura district police chief Uttam Majumder.
“Security forces in the Northeast India are on the alert for fake currency notes being circulated – strongly believed to be the handiwork of the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan,” said K.T.D. Singh, director general of Tripura police.
“In the past few months, the police in the region have seized a large number of fake notes from different towns and bordering areas of the region.”
He said that the matter came up for serious discussion at the recent high-level meeting of the region’s police chiefs held in Guwahati.
“ISI was pumping fake currency notes into the region (to destabilize the economy) along with guns, ammunition and other contraband items, often with the help of various insurgent groups,” the Tripura police chief said.