Fake currency racket busted in Mizoram, three arrested

AIZAWL - Security forces in Mizoram have busted a fake currency racket and arrested three people, including a woman, police said here Tuesday.

Mizoram police and troopers of the Border Security Force in a joint operation uncovered the racket at Vairengte near the Assam-Mizoram border on Saturday, said Aizawl district police chief Lalbiakthanga Khiangte.

The security forces seized fake Indian currency with a face value of Rs.164,000 along with a laptop, computers, printer, scanner, silk screen developer, different coloured solutions, inks, and reams of court stamp paper.

The arrested people, aged 25 to 40, were produced before a local court Sunday and were sent to seven days’ police custody.

In another incident, Mizoram police recovered fake notes of Rs.100 denomination from a 38-year-old woman in this state capital last week. The police are on the lookout for her associates.

Last month, the paramilitary Assam Rifles troopers arrested three people and recovered fake Indian currency with a face value of Rs.350,000 at Kanchanpur in north Tripura.

A senior Tripura police official said: “Security forces in northeast India are on the alert for fake currency notes being circulated - which is strongly believed to be the handiwork of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan.”

Four northeastern states - Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram - share a 1,879-km border with Bangladesh part of which is porous, riverine and unfenced. The area is prone to frequent smuggling of numerous items, infiltration and occasional skirmishes.

Fake currency in Rs.100, Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 denominations are mostly in circulation in the northeast region.

Nationalised banks and various other financial institutions in northeast India have taken a series of measures, including installation of fake note detection machines, to identify fake currency.