Concerned over Bangladesh and Nepal’s consistent failure in checking the massive inflow of fake Indian currency notes into India, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will soon lodge a strong protest with the two neighbouring countries.
Sources said the NIA will be sending a detailed presentation to Union home ministry shortly on the fake notes smuggling, which in turn will be forwarded to the ministry of external affairs to express New Delhi’s strong resentment over the issue.
Even though smuggling of fake currency from Bangladesh and Nepal is not a recent phenomenon, sources said the latest provocation for lodging a formal protest with Dhaka and Nepal was that the NIA was now in possession of concrete evidence revealing how some important fake currency operatives had become active in the last few months in the two countries with the backing of Pakistan intelligence agency ISI.
Home ministry sources also confirmed that the NIA will be providing a detailed list of key fake currency operatives in Nepal and Bangladesh to the MEA so that these can be forwarded to the two countries for an immediate crackdown.
The home ministry and NIA top-brass recently held a detailed review meeting on the contentious issue. The NIA is already investigating at least seven cases of fake currency.
“We have enough information and evidence like names, addresses and the modus operandi of the fake currency operatives in the two countries. It will be extremely difficult for Nepal and Bangladesh to ignore this new evidence,’’ a senior home ministry official said.
The NIA was concerned that despite a severe crackdown, including arrest of some important operatives in India, there was no let up in flow of fake currency into the country. Further investigations and intelligence inputs revealed that ISI had recently roped in some local criminals both in Dhaka and Kathmandu to give the large-scale fake currency racket a further boost.
The NIA along with central intelligence agencies over the last few months has painstakingly identified these operatives.