Hyderabad: In just eight months, 55 complaints of counterfeit currency notes being in circulation were received by the central crime station of the detective department of the Hyderabad city police. Surprisingly, none of the complaints pertained to the new notes of Rs 500 or Rs 2,000 but were only about the demonetised currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 which the Reserve Bank of India received from various banks.
The complaints pertaining to FICN (Fake Indian Currency Notes) are divided into two types. One is the complaints on which an FIR (First Information Report) is registered and the other is a non-FIR complaint, in which an inquiry is carried out without registering a case.
According to the guidelines, following detection of the counterfeit notes, up to four pieces (notes) in a single transaction, a consolidated report is sent to the concerned police station along with the notes at the end of every month.
Detective department deputy commissioner of police Avinash Mohanty said, “In any instance, if five or more pieces are found in a single transaction, an FIR is registered for investigation based on the report submitted by the RBI. The notes are further sent to the Currency Printing Press at Mysore to verify their status and then further action is taken.” During every quarter, a State Level Security Committee meeting is held in order to discuss the status of detection and reporting of the counterfeit notes by the bankers, police, and the RBI, according to Mr Mohanty.
He said, “The total counterfeit cases rece-ived so far amounts to around Rs10 crore. Most of the complaints are of non-FIR status as even in cases when 10 persons exchange one fake currency note each in a day, will also have a non-FIR status. The FICN team is investigating the complaints and many of them end in closure, as there would be no evidence about the person who exchanges the notes.”
The FICN team officials said that five FIRs have been registered since January this year, where the notional value of the counterfeit currency is over Rs 76,12,700. There are 50 other non-FIR complaints where the seized notes have a notional value of Rs 32,48,020.
FICN team inspector Y. Prakash Reddy said, “The complaints received by the team are about demonetised currency. The notes were received by various banks across the state during demonetisation. It is two years since demonetisation, but still the RBI is finding counterfeit notes that were sent by the banks.”
