Cashing in on the large-scale cash transactions ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, the counterfeit currency note makers have become active again across the country.
At least 25 gangs, each consisting of 10-12 members, are engaged with the crime currently, among which, 15 are based in Dhaka alone, according to the Detective Branch officials.
The gangs have already started releasing fake notes and spreading them to major cities across the country through their recruited agents.
Each of the gangs has plans to spread fake notes around Tk4-5 crore in the market during this Eid shopping season, sources said referring to the confessions made by the arrested racketeers.
Most of them, now freed on bail, have become involved again with the illegal activity.
On June 25, Rapid Action Battalion arrested three alleged racketeers in Sylhet and recovered 10,000 fake notes of Tk10 lakh.
In separate drives earlier this month, detective police arrested six people with fake notes of Tk50 lakh in the capital’s Mirpur and six others in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area with Tk40 lakh fake notes.
In primary interrogation, all of them confessed that they were planning to circulate a large amount of counterfeit notes before Eid.
They come with mostly Tk100, Tk500, and Tk1,000 notes that are widely used during festival seasons like Eid.
Officials said the fake note people can often easily make transactions with the forged notes due to lack of detection machines and mass awareness.
According to Dhaka Metropolitan Police, in Dhaka only some 53 members of fake note gangs were arrested in last one year. Of them, 12 were repeatedly released on bail and got involved with the crime.
“The increase of fake note business is nothing new. The law enforcing agencies remain alert and conduct drives in uniforms and plain clothes,” said Monirul Islam, DB joint commissioner at DMP.
According to Bangladesh Dokan Malik Samity, a shop owners’ platform, the volume of shopping is Tk3,000 crore a day in usual time across the country, but during festive seasons like Eid-ul-fitr, it reaches up to Tk7,500-Tk8,000 crore.
“Bangladesh Bank and law enforcers have talked to us in regards to installation of fake note detection device in shopping malls. But they are not installing it by themselves,” said SA Quader Kiron, the association’s president.
He said monetary transactions have already gone up and retail shopkeepers now have to install the detection devices at their own initiatives.
With an apprehension that the counterfeit notes may flood the market as it happens every year, independent lawmaker Haji Mohammad Selim recently in the parliament demanded formation of a special tribunal against the business.
Over 5,000 cases related with fake notes are now pending in courts, Haji Selim told the parliament.
He regretted that these criminals are hardly punished for their illegal activity.
Currently, Penal Code is considered to be the only resort to punish such people, while many of them get released as the government is yet to formulate a dedicated law.
Bangladesh Bank has prepared a draft of Fake Currency Prevention Bill 2013 incorporating provision of life imprisonment for possessing 10,000 pieces of fake notes.
Besides, if anyone is caught with more than two fake notes, he will have to face at least six months imprisonment unless they can prove their innocence, said officials adding that the law is now hanging in the balance.
On June 25, the central bank held a meeting with representatives from scheduled banks and law enforcement agencies, and asked the banks to take necessary measures in this connection.
It requested the law enforcers to increase their monitoring and vigilance on fake note production ahead of Eid. It also put stress on special monitoring on the fake note racketeers now on bail.
“Bangladesh Bank launches campaign against fake notes throughout the year. But it doesn’t have any special initiative to prevent the crime in Ramadan,” said the central bank executive director Mahfuzur Rahman.
In regards to installation of fake note detection machines in shopping spots, he said the authorities install such devices only during Eid-ul-Azha.
Ziauddin Ahmed, managing director of Securities Printing Corporation (Bangladesh) Ltd, stressed the need to raise public awareness about and run campaign against fake notes as law enforcers and the central bank alone cannot stop the crime.
He said the people should learn the security features on a note to keep themselves safe from forgeries “although it is not always possible.”
Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Haque said directives were already made to the law enforcers to combat the crime.
“We have also held talks with the shop owners and asked them to install fake note detection devices,” he added.
so the criminals behind the crime cannot escape,” he added.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
