Indian authorities have for long known that Nepal was being used as a conduit to pump fake currency printed in Pakistan into India.
Coffee, machhli (fish) and achar (pickle). At first mention, these words would sound innocuous to anybody. But on the Indo-Nepal border, they take on a different meaning — as code words in a fake foreign currency racket.
In dealers' lingo, ‘coffee’ means Singapore dollar, machhli is Australian dollar and achar US dollar. The humble Indian rupee has a pedestrian pseudonym — chappal (slipper).
Indian authorities have for long known that Nepal was being used as a conduit to pump fake currency printed in Pakistan into India. But startling revelations about a flourishing racket in fake foreign currencies came to light during interrogation of a kingpin by UP police.
Police arrested Nepali national Javed alias Vicky, son of Majid Manihar, who has been smuggling fake notes through the Nepal border. Additional director general of UP police, AK Jain, said that Vicky, who is connected to the Dawood gang and the ISI, had confessed to running the racket. Vicky and Majid Manihar had been getting a supply of notes from Pak agents Naseem Shah and Salim Shah.
Police also found that the racket had grown beyond their wildest estimates, and that the smugglers were now concentrating on fulfiling the demand for foreign currencies.
As in the case of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), foreign dollar bills are also being printed in government presses in Pakistan, Vicky revealed. Vicky said that the FICN racket was on the decline due to public awareness and strict surveillance. At the same time, the market for fake foreign currencies had been growing, especially in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. The fake foreign currency was also being channelled to tourist spots.
A senior police official says millions of worth of dollars have already been smuggled into India, without the intelligence agencies even getting a whiff of it. He revealed that even Pakistani diplomats stationed in Kathmandu were hand in glove with the smugglers of fake currency.
“The problem is that only small-time couriers and agents fall in the net while the big bosses running the racket from Nepal remain safe,” the official said. Vicky’s arrest has helped unravel the fake currency racketeers’ modus operandi to a great extent. The UP Police are now reported to be in touch with the Centre to get an Interpol red corner notice issued for Nepal-based Majid Manihar.
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