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Fake note in Pak Embassy boy’s fee |
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Within days of the arrest and expulsion of a Pakistan embassy staffer in Kathmandu after he was caught red-handed while trying to sell fake Indian currency notes to an undercover agent, another official of the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi tried to do the same. The official, Muzafar Ali Khan, deposited Rs. 3000 as fee for his son, a prep student in the Mount Carmel school, Anand Niketan, in New Delhi. The money included a Rs. 500 note also which was found to be fake. Since the school has a practice of jotting down on the note itself the name of a person who deposits a high denomination note, the school was able to identify Mr. Khan after the State Bank of Patiala informed the school that the note was fake when the money was deposited there. The school principal, Mrs. Mina William called Mr. Khan to office to bring to his notice that he had deposited a counterfeit note. He offered to replace the note but the principal refused to return the fake note and instead informed the police. Although no FIR has been registered, a case under section 489 of the IPC which deals with the use of forged currency can be lodged and if convinced, the accused can attract a jail for life or ten years and fine. Foreign Office spokesman in New Delhi said, a report has been lodged by the school with the police and the matter will be investigated. The Pakistan embassy in New Delhi has dismissed the charge of its staff circulating fake Indian currency as utter non-sense. A press note by the High Commission said it was a deliberate and vicious campaign of vilification against Pakistan as the mission obtains all its local currency notes from the State Bank of India. In Islamabad, the Acting High Commissioner of India was summoned to the foreign office to lodge a complaint.
The involvement of a Pakistani High Commission official in New Delhi in the circulation of fake Indian currency is not an isolated case. The arrest and subsequent deportation of a Pakistani embassy official in Kathmandu, Mr. Shabur shows that not only the ISI but almost the entire Pakistani government machinery is engaged in the operation aimed at weakening the economic structure of India. The other aim seems to be to cause panic among the people. Now come credible reports that Pakistan has a full-fledged facility in Peshwar to print such notes. Not only that, senior officials of the Nepalese Central Bank believe that the notes are printed in the Pakistani Security Press itself. Perhaps that is the reason why their quality is as good, if not better, than those printed in India. It is believed that notes worth millions of rupees have already been injected into the Indian economy in a clandestine manner during the past few months. These have been in circulation in almost all parts of the country. Since these have apparently been printed with the blessing of a regular government, at times even bank officials are not able to make out the difference between the real and the fake ones.
The well-oiled operation is conducted through regular conduits in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Unwary people traveling on Samjhauta Express and those hoping to go from Bangladesh to Pakistan and back are believed to have been used as carriers. But the active participation of embassy officials adds an entirely new dimension to the sinister campaign. Ironically, even if the person arrested in Nepal did not have diplomatic immunity, it would not have been easy to launch legal action against him because Rs. 500 notes are not legal tenders in Nepal.
Quoting an interrogation report of a woman, who acted as a savari and was arrested in the last week of December 1999, sources said she was a resident of a JJ cluster in Yamuna Pushta and had gone to seek visa from the High Commission, where she fell prey to one of these conduits. The woman said that she had accepted a bag from a stranger at the Lahore railway station fro delivery in New Delhi on being paid a certain amount. After her arrival and subsequent arrest, it was found that the bag contained more than Rs. 3 lakh in counterfeit Indian currency. The savari was on her way to deliver the bag to an ISI conduit in Kabootar Market in Old Delhi, who was also picked up later. However, the investigating agencies are yet to ascertain the exact number of such savaris, who have handed over money to these conduits.
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