NIA court sentences two to rigorous imprisonment in 2019 Malda fake currency case

Kolkata: A special NIA court in Kolkata has sentenced two men to rigorous imprisonment in a 2019 fake Indian currency seizure case inWest Bengal's Malda district.

With this, the total number of persons convicted so far in the case since last month has risen to three.

According to a statement of the National Investigation Agency (NAI), Asim Sarkar of Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh) has been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment, and his co-accused, Aladu a.k.a. Matur of Malda district, will be in jail for five years.

On July 23, the NIA officials informed that a third accused in the same case, Faijul S.K., was sentenced by the same court to five years of rigorous imprisonment.

As per the NIA statement issued on Wednesday, Sarkar and Aladu, who have been held culpable under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, have also been imposed financial penalties of Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively, failing the payment of which will lead to another three years of rigorous imprisonment for both of them.

The same special court had also imposed a similar financial penalty of Rs 5,000 on Faijul S.K. failing the payment which will lead to another three years of rigorous imprisonment for him. Faijul is a resident of the Gopalganj area in the Malda district.

“Trial against an absconding Bangladeshi national, identified as Abdul Rahim, is continuing in the case relating to seizure of High-Quality Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in September 2019,” the NIA statement read.

According to it, on September 16, 2019, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) recovered 99 fake notes in the denomination of Rs 2,000 and two in the denomination of Rs 500, totalling Rs 1,99,000 in face value.

“NIA investigation had found that all the four accused were involved in the criminal conspiracy to procure and circulate FICN with the intention to use it as genuine for unlawful gain,” the statement read.