Author: G Ganapathy Subramaniam
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: November 22, 2004
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/930257.cms
Guns might go silent in the Kashmir
valley with peace initiatives of Team Manmohan, starting with troop reduction
in the border state, but there seems to be no let-up in the cross-border
onslaught on Indian economy.
Even as Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and President Pervez Musharaff are smoking the peace-pipe, Pakistan's
ISI has launched a fresh offensive on the Indian economy by pumping in
fake Indian currency notes.
The menace of fake currency notes,
which was earlier routed through Nepal, had subsided for some time after
the Indian authorities launched a massive crackdown and use of Rs 500 notes
was banned by Nepal.
The fresh wave of offensive has
been launched by the ISI in the north-east using Bangladesh as the base,
according to highly-placed intelligence sources.
The re-surfacing of fake currency
notes was discussed by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) with top police officials
of Tripura and other north-eastern states.
Sleuths suspect that militant groups
based in the north- east are acting in connivance with the ISI through
their bases in Bangladesh. In many cases, investigations revealed that
the kingpins in the fake currency rackets were Bangladeshi nationals fronting
for the ISI.
Following the crackdown in Nepal,
where the Indian rupee is an accepted currency, the ISI has shifted its
fake currency operations to Bangladesh, Bhutan and Burma borders where
militant groups of the north-east operate. The issue has been now taken
up with the Border Security Force (BSF).
The evidence collected will also
be used to convince the BSF's counterpart, the BDR, to take action against
the kingpins, the sources said.
During 2002-03 alone, Rs 20 crore
in fake currency was seized from various parts of the country. The actual
amount of fake currency in circulation is estimated to run into hundreds
of crores.
Apart from funding terrorism, the
ISI is also looking at destabilisation of the Indian economy by flooding
the country with fake notes, the sources added. The quality of the fake
notes seized recently indicates that they could not have been produced
without the support of some government agencies.
The needle of suspicion pointed
at the ISI which, sleuths accuse, is seeking to erode the credibility of
the Indian currency.
Fake notes are not uncommon in the
case of top currencies, starting with the US dollar. The difference in
the case of the rupee, however, is that it is not convertible. Officially,
the rupee is not a legal tenor anywhere outside India, with the sole exception
of Nepal.
However, the rupee is illegally
transacted in various places including Sri Lanka, some Gulf countries and
Bangladesh.
The police department of Tripura
has formally informed the IB about the fake currency menace in the north-east.
The apprehensions are serious since border trade is being actively promoted
with Burma and Bangladesh, the sources said.
Probe into fake currency rackets
also face a hurdle since seized notes have to be sent to the RBI's bank
press note manager at Dewas in Madhya Pradesh every time for expert opinion.
Therefore, the police authorities
in the north-east want branches of RBI and SBI in the north-east to be
authorised to provide expert opinion.
The strong links between fake currency
rackets and a host of other anti-nationals, including militants, drug syndicates,
smugglers and the underworld, are making it difficult for the police to
crack the fakes.
Hawala syndicates also work in co-ordination
with fake currency rackets.
