Patna: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Thursday, February 20 arrested an individual involved in importing high-security papers used in printing of counterfeit currency notes from Khagaria.
DRI officials arrested Md. Zishan Badar, a resident of Raatan village under Gogri police station limits of Khagaria for importing high-security papers used in printing of Bharatiya currency from Singapore. Zishan was detained during the raids conducted by officials at multiple locations across many states on Thursday.
The accused was nabbed almost a month after he tried importing a consignment of high-security papers from Singapore which was intercepted and seized by DRI with the help of custom officials at Indra Gandhi airport in New Delhi on January 24. The said consignment was bound to be delivered at Raatan village of Khagaria.
According to the details, the imported A4 size papers were embedded with a thin silver thread (security thread) attached to it with RBI inscription. The papers were to be used for printing high quality fake Bhartiya currency.
The DRI officials after interrogating the accused has handed him over to the local police. A case against the arrested individual was lodged at the local police station. The accused had reportedly imported a consignment in the past as well.
Zishan was arrested almost a fortnight after DRI officials nabbed two importers of high-quality paper from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. The officials have so far arrested 9 individuals alongside busting seven such Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs) modules being operated in Bharat.
Notably, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also carried out search operation at multiple locations in Bihar on February 19. The raids were carried out in connection with the seizure of high-quality FICNs from three accused in September 2024 .
The sleuths of the agency conducted searches at the premises of the accused and suspects in Bihar’s Patna, Bhagalpur, Bhojpur, and Motihari districts. Two other locations in Jammu and Kashmir and Telangana were also raided as part of the crackdown. The agency during the raids recovered cash, digital devices along several incriminating documents.
The case relates to the seizure of FICN with a face value of Rs 1, 95,000 from three accused persons, identified as Md Nazar Saddam of Bhagalpur, Md Waris of Bhojpur, and Zakir Hussain of Patna.
In the raids conducted on Wednesday, a team of the agency also reached the house of one of the key accused in the case Nazre Saddam in Bhagalpur district. Saddam is currently lodged at Beur jail.
The accused were arrested by the local police during vehicle checking in Banjariya area of Motihari on September last year. During the initial interrogation of the police it was revealed that the seized FICN were minted at Pakistan and the accused were tasked with supplying it to Jammu and Kashmir via Nepal.
The agencies later also arrested another accused, Muzaffar Ahmad Wani alias Sarfaraz, from Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir. The case is currently being investigated by the NIA.
It may be recalled that a special court of NIA on February 11 also sentenced two accused to imprisonment and fine in another case related to smuggling of FICNs, involving Bangladeshi and Nepalese nationals.
The two accused Md. Mumtaz and Md. Baitullah, both hailing from Bihar were awarded 7 years imprisonment with a fine of Rs 8000. The case relates to the seizure of FICN having a total face value of Rs 1, 90,500, in denominations of Rs 2000 and Rs 500, from Md. Mumtaz at Sarkari Bus Stand, Purnea, Bihar in December 2019.
