Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 13: Police today achieved a major breakthrough when it captured another associate of hawala-cum-fake currency operator from Narwal, who claimed to have recently joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) and had contested 2008 Assembly election from Anantnag constituency as an independent candidate.
Police said there were enough indications that the fake currency taken by the two—a Kashmiri businessman and a politician from an unidentified person at Bholpur Shanti Niketan, Kolkata in West Bengal, was being smuggled into India from Pakistan via Bangladesh.
“It was high quality fake Indian currency, which is printed only in Pakistan,’’ police sources said.
While a Kashmiri businessman Rouf Ahmad Lachoo son of Mushtaq Ahmad Lachoo, a resident of Sherpura, Anantnag, who was running a clothes shop at Chini Market, Anantnag, was arrested yesterday from Jammu Railway Station, his associate Tanvir Ahmad Ganai son of Ghulam Hassan Ganai, a resident of Durgund, Anantnag was captured from Narwal this morning.
Police said Ganai had boarded off Howrah Special train from which Lachoo was arrested yesterday at Jalandhar and proceeded to Amritsar for knee treatment in a private hospital. He reached Narwal from Amritsar this morning and was captured by a joint team of Jammu police and Special Operations Group (SOG).
Police said a total of Rs 7 lakh worth fake Indian currency has been recovered from the two racketeers—Rs 4 lakh from Lachoo and Rs 3 lakh from Ganai. Both of them have been booked under Sections 489 © and 34 RPC at Trikuta Nagar police station.
Police and SOG teams headed by SP South Rajeshwar Singh, SP SOG Shivdeep Singh, SDPO East SS Samyal and SHO Trikuta Nagar Inspector Chanchal Singh made the arrests and recoveries under the supervision of IGP Jammu Rajesh Kumar, DIG Jammu Shakeel Ahmed Beig and SSP Jammu Atul Goel.
Police said Lachu and Ganai have revealed that they got Rs 7 lakh worth high quality fake Indian currency from an unnamed and unidentified person at Bholpur Shanti Niketan, Kolkata in exchange of Rs 3.5 lakh genuine currency.
While this was reportedly first trip of Lachu to Kolkata in connection with purchase of currency, Ganai had been in the illegal trade for past one and a half year.
Sources said both the accused were being quizzed to ascertain identity of the person(s), who had been supplying them with fake Indian currency in Kolkata and the people to whom they had to sell it in the Kashmir Valley.
“Though none of the two arrested persons had militant connections previously, police said their involvement in anti-national activities can’t be ruled out at this stage as the entire case was under investigations. Moreover, there were credible inputs to suggest that the fake currency had been smuggled from Pakistan to Bangladesh and then traded into West Bengal,’’ sources said, adding that Jammu police have sounded their counterparts in Anantnag to ascertain a detailed report about the two arrested persons.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that Ganai during his frequent trips to Kolkata had come across with some ruling TMC leaders in West Bengal. He claimed to have launched the TMC in the State about a month back. He had also contested 2008 Assembly elections from Anantnag Assembly seat as an independent candidate.
Sources said Ganai had developed good connections in the West Bengal. This, he had done to get political cover both in West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir to continue with his illegal trade of fake currency.
“Going by the very high quality of fake currency, it was clear that it had been printed in Pakistan and then smuggled to Bangladesh, from where it was supplied to racketeers in West Bengal and pumped into various Indian cities including Jammu and Kashmir to destroy the Indian economy,’’ sources said.
They didn’t rule out the possibility of fake currency meant for the militants in Kashmir. “We are not ruling out anything at this stage. It could be a trade of fake Indian currency alone or it could be a militancy related business. Everything is under investigations,’’ they added.
Sources said Rs 4 lakh worth fake Indian currency was in the denomination of 1000 and Rs 3 lakh in the denomination of 500.
“It was very difficult to differentiate between original Indian currency and the fake currency recovered from the possession of two accused,’’ they said describing the seized currency as that of very high quality, which could have been printed at very sophisticated machines.
Police said they would also establish contact with their Kolkata counterparts very soon to get details about the fake currency racketeers and share with them the interrogation report of the two accused especially names of the persons supplying the currency in Kolkata to J&K persons if they (the names) surfaced during questioning of the accused.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel