If it is militancy which is eating into the vitals of nation’s security there is another face of terror which comes via fake currency pumped in from across the border. All high quality fake Indian currency notes, which is also called FICN in short form, seized in the country and abroad originate only from Pakistan which has created a self-sustaining criminal network in South and South East Asian region. Till date if the government figures are to be believed FICN having face value of Rs 30.88 crore have been either recovered in different branches of RBI or seized by police during January and September this year from the country. Even Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary recently told the Lok Sabha in a written reply, “all high quality FICN seized in India and abroad, originate only from Pakistan which has created a self sustaining criminal network in the South and South East Asian region for infusing fake India currency notes into India via Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and United Arab Emirates.” The minister said the government has constituted a special FICN coordination (FCORD) group to share intelligence or information amongst the different security agencies of state or Centre to counter the menace of circulation of fake currency notes in the country. FICN with face value of Rs 27.09 crore, Rs 45.24 crore and Rs 42.91 crore were seized in 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively in the country. While Pakistani carriers were involved in six of the 13 cases of FICN seizures from abroad between January and September this year, Bangladeshis and Nepalese nationals were involved in three cases each. The seizure having the highest face value was made at Dhaka Airport, when the Bangladesh customs seized a FICN consignment (of Rs 6.40 crore) from the cargo section. The consignment, brought from Pakistan in a Qatar Airways cargo flight, comprised six bundles of FICN with same serial number. There is no doubt that this self-sustaining net work has developed into a parallel economy that today it becomes difficult even for bank officials to differentiate between the genuine and fake currency.
