Armed with evidence that Pakistan is pumping fake Indian currency in the country, New Delhi is all set to ask Islamabad to take active steps to dismantle the machinery in that country being used to print and circulate fake Indian currency, during the forthcoming home secretary level talks to be held between March 20 and March 30.
The home ministry has also alerted all police stations and banks at the “district’’ level asking them to register FIRs if they seize more than five FICN notes in one single transaction.
The move comes in the backdrop of probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) pointing towards use of “state-owned’’ currency making machines in Pakistan for manufacturing fake Indian currency. Home secretary G.K. Pillai is expected to raise the issue with his Pakistani counterpart in March, top government sources said.
Coming as the next big threat to national security after terrorism, the home ministry has asked all state governments to designate one police station in each district wherein the offences related to FICN recovered by banks can be reported. The banks will correspondingly appoint a nodal officer in each district to report the seizures of FICNs, it has said.
Recoveries of FICNs having “one to four pieces in a single transaction’’ will be reported to the local police on a monthly basis.
“However, seizures involving five or more than five pieces in one single transaction will be reported as a separate FIR by the banks,” the ministry has told state governments.
The state police forces have been asked to share the forensic report of such notes with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Intelligence Bureau.
The home ministry has also asked all state DGPs to inform the National Investigation Agency, the nodal agency for probing FICN cases, of seizures and recoveries of high quality FICNs. It has also asked states to share the data on prosecution and conviction in each case with the home ministry.
Indian agencies suspect that FICNs are being printed at Quetta in Balochistan on state-owned machines actually meant for printing Pakistani currency notes and circulated into the country using the underworld network by routing them through Bangladesh, Nepal, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Bangkok.