April 5: The state home department is delaying the handover of cases relating to fake currency that is printed in Pakistan to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) even though in just the past two weeks, as many as three major rackets of counterfeit currency notes were busted in Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. In fact, all the rackets were linked to Malda district in West Bengal, considered the hub of cross-border fake currency smuggling.
The NIA has a specialise wing that deals with fake currency cases with cross border implications and while the other south Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are handing over the cases to the agency, the NIA unit in Hyderabad has only received the one case of terror suspect Zia Ul Haq.
Meanwhile, cross-border fake currency groups are targeting Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and other cities in the state.
"The state government has to write to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the MHA has to hand over the cases to the NIA after verifying the quality of the notes it received from the state government. In fact, the other south Indian states hand over at least four cases per month to the NIA. It is advisable to hand over cases to the NIA as this will accommodate a holistic investigation as the route and original conspirators of all the cases are based in Pakistan, Bangladesh and West Bengal. One of the key objectives of the NIA is to probe fake currency cases of cross border significance," a police official said.
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