POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Feb 9,2022: Amanullah Bhuiyan, a government driver from Sunamganj district of the Narcotics Control Department, had been smuggling Indian counterfeit currency from Pakistan to India through Bangladesh for a long time.
The members of the group used to bring dried fish, mosaic stones and other counterfeit Indian Rupee notes inside the bags through Chapainawabganj area of Bangladesh through courier service.
He then collected them tactfully, smuggling them through members of their gang in India.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) Detective Branch (DB) said it had received the information during interrogation of four arrested members involved in counterfeit Indian currency transactions.
Four people involved in counterfeit Indian currency were arrested in raids in Demra and Hazaribagh in the capital on Monday and Tuesday.
At the time, 1.5 million Indian counterfeit coins and mobile phones were recovered from them.
The arrested persons are Amanullah Bhuiyan (52), a government driver of Sunamganj district of the Narcotics Control Department, his second wife lawyer Kajal Rekha (36), Yasin Arafat Keramat (33) and Nomanur Rahman Khan (31).
The information was given at a press conference at DMP’s media centre on Minto Road in the capital on Wednesday afternoon.
DMP Additional Commissioner (DB) AKM Hafeez Akhter said the Gulshan Intelligence Department was tasked with investigating a case involving counterfeit currency worth Rs Indian 7 crore 35 lakh at Khilkhet police station in November last year.
Nomanur Rahman Khan was arrested from Nazimuddin Road area of Old Dhaka on February 8 by several teams of detectives of Gulshan Division through analysis of information obtained during the investigation of the case.
Noman said during interrogation, his brother Fazlur Rahman staying in Pakistan was sending various goods from Pakistan by air and sea and counterfeit Indian rupee notes of 500 to Bangladesh through different persons at different times.
Noman added that his another brother Saidur Rahman, importer Abu Taleb, coordinator Fatema Akter and others had been arrested earlier along with a part of a large consignment of counterfeit rupees smuggled in recent times but others were kept in the custody of Kajal Rekha and Aman in Hazaribagh.
DB chief Hafiz Akhter said that after conducting a special operation in Hazaribagh area of the capital after analyzing the information provided by Noman, Yasir Arafat alias Keramat and Aman Ullah Bhuiyan were arrested from 21 Maneshwar Road.
A total of 12 lakh counterfeit Indian coins worth Rs 6 lakh were recovered from them.
Based on the information of the arrested persons, they raided the house of Kajal Rekha and arrested him along with another three lakh Indian counterfeit coins.
During the preliminary interrogation, the detainees said that they had been collecting Indian counterfeit currency from Pakistan for a long time.
It was then smuggled to India through Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj area by packing various products, by body or by courier service. There are basically two families at the center of this cycle of counterfeit money smugglers for a long time. One of the families is in Srinagar, Munshiganj district.
Most of the family members once lived in Pakistan.
Now Fazlur Rahman, a senior member of the family, collects high quality counterfeit money from Pakistan-centric mafias in Karachi, Pakistan.
And those counterfeit coins were sometimes sent to Bangladesh by sea in sacks of dried, sometimes mosaic stones and other construction materials.
His brothers Saidur Rahman Rahman, Nomanur Rahman and brother-in-law Shafiqur Rahman assisted him in this work. Together with the importers, counterfeit Indian currency was brought from the Pakistani port of Karachi to the port of Chittagong via Sri Lanka.
Later, the gang used to unload the counterfeit currency and store it in warehouses, supply it to dealers through various channels and collect the counterfeit currency through various banks and later smuggle it to Pakistan through hundi.
Hafiz Akhter said that he was buying 1 lakh Indian counterfeit coins at Rs 38,000 and selling them at Rs 40,000-42,000. For every lakh Indian counterfeit coins sold, the members of the clique would get three to four thousand rupees.
Campaign Supervising Officer Mashiur Rahman told UNI that besides smuggling counterfeit rupee across the border into India, members of the ring also used Indian counterfeit currency to sell various prohibited items including Phensidyl, weapons, stolen mobile phones and Gaza at Sonamasjid land port.
Local Mustafa, Habil, Aynal, Masud, Nielsen, Ekram Yadur smuggled Indian currency through the border of local Gomstapur and Shibganj.
He said the four arrested Indian counterfeit currency dealers were sent to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court today seeking a 10-day remand.
After the hearing, the court granted remand for five days.
