The city crime branch arrested five persons from different locations in Gujarat and seized from them fake currency notes with a face value of over Rs. 1 crore before they could circulate the money in the entire market, The Indian Express reported.

The accused arrested have been identified as Pratik Chodvadiya, Radharaman Swami, a priest at a temple at Ambav in Kheda, Pravin Chopra and Kanu Chopra, both residents of Kamrej in Surat, and Mohan Madhav of Ankleshwar.

Gujarat: Crime Branch arrested five people and seized Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) worth over Rs 1 crore from their possession in Surat. (24.11) pic.twitter.com/YMYgEy4WSy

— ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2019

The action by the Surat crime branch was based on a tip-off and a total of 5,013 fake notes of Rs. 2000 denomination with a face value of Rs. 10,026,000 were seized during the operation. The Surat crime branch team raided an under-construction ‘Swami Narayan’ temple at Ambav village in Kheda on Sunday and arrested Radharaman Swami where fake notes and a printing machine were seized from his possession.

“A police team arrested Radharaman Swami from the temple and seized 2,500 fake notes of Rs 2,000 denomination worth Rs 50 lakh, along with printing material. The other three accused were arrested near Shyam Dham temple on the Surat Kamrej highway and 2,310 fake notes worth Rs 46.2 lakh were seized from them,” said RR Sarvaiya, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Surat.

The first person to be arrested was Chodvadiya (19) from near Lake Village farm in Kamrej on Sunday morning with 203 fake notes worth Rs. 406,000 after which he told other members of the gang.

“Based on reliable information, the Crime Branch arrested Prateek Dilipbhai Chodvadiya and recovered fake currency notes with face value of Rs. 4 lakh. During interrogation, Chodvadiya revealed that he, along with some others, had printed fake currency notes with face value of Rs. 1 crore”, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Rahul Patel said.

Three others- Pravin Chopda, Kalu Chopda and Mohan were arrested from Sarthana in Surat district with fake currency with face value of Rs. 19 lakh, Rs. 15 lakh and Rs. 12 lakh, the police said.

The police have booked them under Sections 489 (counterfeiting currency notes), 120 (b) (conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons towards common intent) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Related:

Counterfeiter ordered to print Rs. 3 crore fake notes before MP polls
Are our Currency Notes being printed by Companies earlier Blacklisted for printing Counterfeit Indian & Pakistani Notes?
67% Unlawful Activities Prevention Act Cases Ended In Acquittal/Discharge

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Image Courtesy: PTI

Bhopal: An order was placed to print fake notes worth Rs. 3 crore before Madhya Pradesh state elections according to a counterfeiter who was arrested in Bhopal on Friday.

A former state-level hockey player, Aftab Ali, also known as Mushtaq Khan, told interrogators that a man from Bhopal who he didn’t disclose had placed an order with him to print fake 2000 rupee and 500 rupee notes.

He was arrested along with five others on Oct 9 from Rajgarh and Hoshangabad in Bhopal.

“The police seized fake notes with a face value of Rs 31.50 lakh in denominations of Rs 2000 and Rs 500 from them, said Simala Prasad, superintendent of police, Rajgarh. During interrogation, the five men said the notes were scanned by a machine and later printed on sheets of paper before being cut and arranged in bundles. Police said the same serial number was printed on all the notes of Rs 2000 denomination while there was another number on all the notes of Rs 500 denomination. Police are yet to find out the place from where the gang procured the paper to print the fake notes,” Hindustan Times reported.

The police said that Aftab was the kingpin of the gang notorious for printing and circulating fake currency notes in MP and was involved in it for the past one year.  

“Aftab claimed that according to the order from a man in Bhopal his gang was supposed to print the notes in denominations of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 before the state assembly elections to distribute the same among such people who cannot understand the difference between genuine and fake currency notes, police said. However, Aftab has not disclosed the name of the man who allegedly placed the order for fake notes. He also claimed that he was asked to print the notes for a certain commission,” the HT report said.

“As of now, we can’t say that the fake notes were being printed for its use during the elections but interrogation will bring out the truth,” said Prasad in the report.

The state assembly election in Madhya Pradesh will be held on November 28. It was recently reported that the state saw a 300% increase in circulation of fake notes after demonetization in 2016.

“In the past 20 months, the Madhya Pradesh Police has seized fake notes worth Rs 1.29 crore in both new and old currency notes. According to the data provided by the Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force, in around 40 cases of fake rupee notes till August 2018, various state police agencies have seized Rs 1.29 crore in counterfeit currency. Interestingly, in 2015 and 2016, the police seized much lower amounts in fake notes — Rs 31.73 lakh and Rs 10.76 lakh, respectively. A sum of the two figures, Rs 42.5 lakh, shows that after demonetisation, there was a threefold jump in the counterfeit currency seized in Madhya Pradesh,” reported Firstpost.

The Union Govt and RBI had made claims that the new currency had security features that could not be faked.
 

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Image courtesy Newsclick

Recall what Modi said to the nation in his first announcement on 8 November 2016: “This step will strengthen the hands of the common man in the fight against corruption, black money and fake currency.” Black money, fake money and terrorist money was what he claimed would be destroyed at one stroke.

Given the ground reality, none of this was tenable. But he could deceive the gullible masses into believing that he was a brave man, ready to take on the moneyed and the anti-national racketeers. Black money, according to income tax estimates through their raids, was just less than 5% of the total illegitimate wealth. Black money is held in assets, gold, real estate and foreign banks. It is held in currency either by petty bureaucrats or politicians who need it to run their political machine.

Contrary to Modi’s beliefs, the big ticket corruption happens in the business world through cross border trade (under/ over invoicing) and tax evasions, perhaps digitally. Another source is politics, Modi’s own profession. So, demonetising 86% currency for such a small change could surely not be the reason. Next, the fake money estimates by the Indian Statistical Institute was to the tune of Rs 400 crores — not even a drop in the ocean of currencies demonetised; hence, this also cannot constitute a logical reason.

The terrorists are not terribly dependent on Indian currency. Modi, or rather his entire class, considers Maoists terrorists, but they are not. Nonetheless, they might certainly have been inconvenienced. But to surmise that neutralisation of their stock would end their movement was too naïve to become India’s prime minister. So none of these primary objectives behind demonetisation indicated by Modi was tenable. 

While there were no benefits from demonetisation in economic terms, the costs were certain, and they were substantial. The printing costs of the new notes to replace the old ones is estimated to have cost in the range of Rs 12,000 to 16,000 crores. Add to it the costs of logistics; the cost of refurbishing and recalibrating two lakh ATMs spread all over the country; and, of course, the cost of economic activity being stopped by unavailability of cash, and the human cost actually incurred in terms of hunger and death. 

As this began getting exposed, Modi resorted to shifting his goalposts. He twisted the entire rationale to that of promoting digitisation, or cashless (later moderated as less-cash) economy. Surprisingly, digital payment companies like Paytm were ready to cash in on this cashless rhetoric. In the absence of cash, some people in urban areas quickly switched to digital payments.

This manifest harassment of people was also not spared; it was flaunted as the success of demonetisation. Given the cost of digital transaction (surely Modi knew that his IRCTC, a company under the Railway Ministry, continued to charge 1.8% extra if you used credit card), once the currency is made available, people would revert to their convenient mode of cash transaction. Many people, including me, have given the relative economy with the currency vis-à-vis the digital cash; but when did Modi listen to others’ voices? As the RBI confirms, the level of digital transactions has indeed reached its pre-demonetisation level. Even digitisation of the economy could not help Modi save his demonetisation from being a flop. 

In the absence of any cogent answers to the criticism coming from all quarters, and mounting negative evidence, the Modi-Jaitley duo clutched at every straw to justify their intrinsically stupid decision. In December, Jaitley used supposedly increased indirect and direct tax receipts to claim that demonetisation did not hurt the economy. Later, when the income tax returns data became available, Jaitley and Co. attributed them to the success of demonetisation — until people began showing them bigger growth in number of returns without any demonetisation in previous years.

Jaitley conveniently forgot that his own Economic Survey had revealed a weak investment climate and sharp decline in industrial credit off take, the lowest in the last 65 years, which has been showing up in the absence of new capital formation and the rise in job losses. But Goebbels’ disciples will not be deterred by these truths! Even the result of the first quarter after demonetisation, showing a dip in the GDP, did not deter them. In his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Modi, with characteristic confidence, made questionable claims, inter alia, about demonetisation having brought the generation of black money to a halt. 

The first quarter after demonetisation registered a growth of 6.1 % as against 9.1% in 2016. It was much lower than even the 30 economists’ prediction of 6.65% in a Reuters poll. Now, in the next quarter, the first quarter of 2017-18, GDP figures show a further fall to 5.7 % against 7.9% in the same quarter last year, the lowest in three years. There was no surprise. The sane voices warning of such economic damage were drowned in the deliberate cacophony of government voices intended to confuse people. The fact is that demonetisation has completely devastated the cash-based informal sectorthat contributes 45% to the GDP and employs over 80% of the workforce. The sector is precarious in nature and does not have the capacity to bear severe shocks like demonetisation.Contrary to what the government apologists say, it will take a long time to restore normalcy in this sector. 

Demonetisation is about the economy — which the common man and woman hardly comprehend or relates to. But they certainly understand the hardship demonetisation has heaped on them for no fault of theirs. Their hardship will never be revealed by these figures being flaunted by the government. The common manwas made helpless; he had to stand in queues at ATMs to get his own hard-earned money. Millions like him had to go without food; some even lost their lives. The common people will never forget the chaos created by the daily flip-flop of the RBI during those cashless days. There were as many as 62 amendments in procedure during the first three weeks. The common man bore all these believing Modi’s statement that it was good for the nation.

But the truth is coming out: it has, in fact, done lasting damage to the country.On November 24, 2016, Manmohan Singh rightly described Modi’s demonetisation as “legalised plunder and organised loot”, and predicted that the growth rate might come down to 6% from a whopping 7.3 % in the third quarter ending September 2016. Many economists thereafter have predicted similar damage to the economy. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has predicted that India’s GDP growth rate for the current financial year is set to slow to 6%, “on account of demonetisation”, and warned that there’s no hope of recovering from this slower pace for the next five years.

While Modi has squarely failed to deliver on any of the promises he made during the election, this destruction of India’s growth story will be his enduring contribution. This is what will be remembered by people for a long time to come. 

Why did he do it? There was no economic reason behind such an ill-conceived and badly implemented demonetisation. On apositive note, it may have certainly served to neutralise the opposition’s, particularly Mayawati’s, stock of cash while the BJP remained unaffected on the eve of the Uttar Pradesh elections the BJP was so desperate to win. But more tangibly, it was meant to show off Modi’s proverbial 56” chest, making him a muscular leader who alone could take such bold decisions against the rich. 

Modi has cast a spell over the masses with his oratorical skills and his hyperbolic speeches far too long. They believed in him, ignoring their own pains. They supported his demonetisation, thinking that he was punishing their tormentors, the rich. They gave him massive wins in post-demonetisation assembly elections. When they come out of their trance and realise the damage Modi has done to India, what will happen to the BJP’s apple cart that has set out to achieve Hindu Rashtra? 

Republished with permission of Indian Cultural Forum.
 

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On November 8, 2016 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced de-monetisation of m Rs. 500 and Rs 1000, he had cited counterfeit currency as one of the main reasons. Three months down the line, counterfeiters have succeeded in puncturing the government’s claim  according to The Indian Express. The money is being pumped into the country via the permeable India-Bangladesh border. The shocking details were surfaced following recent arrests and seizures made by National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Border Security Force (BSF), the report says.

Recently, The Hindu had reported that a 26-year-old man, who hails from Malda in West Bengal, was arrested in Murshidabad for carrying 40 fake notes of Rs 2,000 denomination. During the interrogation, the accused revealed that fake notes had been printed in Pakistan, allegedly with the help of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). It has been learned that smugglers were required to pay Rs 400-600 in genuine currency for each fake Rs 2,000 note, depending on the quality, the report says.

Shockingly, the seized notes have showed that at least 11 of the 17 security features in the new Rs 2,000 notes had been replicated. They included the transparent area, watermark, Ashoka Pillar emblem, the letters ‘Rs 2000’ on the left, the guarantee clause with the RBI governor’s signature and the denomination number in Devanagari on the front, the report says. According to experts, the motif of Chandrayaan, the Swachh Bharat logo and the year of printing had been copied on the reverse side. Although the print and paper quality of the seized counterfeits were poor, they resembled genuine notes, it says. Besides, the seized notes had the water mark and a crackling sound, similar to genuine currency, the report says.

As per the report, the first known attempt to smuggle fake currency was made in the last week of December 2016, when samples from across the border were sent for approval to smugglers in Malda. The first seizures of such notes were recorded on January 22 and on February 4, when Piyarul Sheikh (16) and Digamber Mondol (42), both from Kaliachak in Malda, were arrested by the local police and NIA.

According to officials of the Securities Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), the newly introduced notes had no additional security features and were similar to those in the old Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes. According to a 2016 study conducted by the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Kolkata, the value of Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) in circulation was pegged at Rs 400 crore.

Union Finance Ministry had informed a Parliamentary Committee that smuggling of fake currency has totally stopped post demonetisation and the tax department has seized Rs 515 crore in cash, including Rs 114 crore of new currency notes, up to January 10. According to sources, in its response to the Public Accounts Committee over queries on demonetisation, the Finance Ministry said it has also detected undisclosed income of Rs 4,172 crore in search and seizure operations between November 9-December 28, 2016. Banning of 500 and 1000 rupee notes was intended to curb terror financing and as per the Intelligence reports the smuggling of fake notes has come to a “total halt”, the finance ministry had said.
 
Related Artciles:
1. Counterfeiters Replicated Half of Security Features of New Rs 2,000 Notes
2. RTI reveals RBI doesn't know value of fake notes seized since demonetisation

The post Three months after Modi’s demonetisation move, fake Rs 2000 notes from Pakistan enter India appeared first on SabrangIndia.

"We presently don't have the confirmed data on this query," said a reply from the RBI's Department of Currency Management (Forged Note Vigilance Division), to prominent RTI  Activist Anil Galgali. In a pointed query, Anil Galgali had asked RBI to provide details of the number or value of the fake currencies detected post-demonetisation, the name of the banks, dates, etc, between November 8-December 10, 2016.

"However, the RBI has made it clear that nearly 11 weeks later, it has simply no data available on this crucial aspect. So the government's claims to demonetise as a weapon to kill fake currency is proving hollow," said Galgali.
Galgali pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that demonetisation would help wean out counterfeit currency notes and choke terror fundings.
 

"The RBI's replies make it obvious that the government has failed in this endeavour or raised the bogey of fake currencies merely to implement demonetisation. It’s now up to the PM to declare the figure/value of counterfeit notes recovered, in national interest," Galgali said.

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मध्य प्रदेश के एडीजी वी. मधुकुमार ने कहा कि नोटबंदी के बाद ये प्रदेश का सबसे बड़ा मामला है, जिसमें पुलिस को भ्रष्टाचार के खिलाफ एक बड़ी जीत हासिल हुई है। इतनी भारी मात्रा में नकली नोटों का पकड़ा जाना कोई छोटी घटना नहीं है। पुलिस के नकली नोटजब्त करने के बाद से ही ललित समेत अन्य तीन आरोपी शहर से फरार हो गए हैं। पुलिस लगातार उनके छिपने के संभावित ठिकानों पर दबिश दे रही है। 
 
भाजपा पार्षद अजीत तिवारी से पुछताछ करने पर एक बात सामने आई के ललित तिवारी कुछ दिन पहले ही नोटों की गड्डी लेकर इंदौर आया था। उसके इंदौर आने का मकसद किसी से मिलना था। पुलिस ललित तिवारी का इंदौर कनेक्शन खंगालने में लग गई है। नाबालिगों के फोन जांच से भाजयुमो नेता जयंत गरूड़ का नाम भी सामने आया है। हालांकि फोन एक बार ही आया था उसके बाद से दोनों के बीच कोई संम्पर्क नही हुआ।
 
पुलिस ने मकान पर छापा मार कर प्रिंटर, स्केनर, मॉनीटर, सीपीयू, की बोर्ड, नोट छापने में प्रयुक्त कागज, कटर आदि जब्त कर लिया है। सोमवार को ललित के दो साथी को गिरफ्तार कर लिया गया है, जिसके पास से आठ लाख रू. के नकली नोट मिले हैं। 

आरोपी ललित तिवारी फिलहाल बेरोजगार था। एक साल पहले उसके कपड़े की दुकान थी, साथ ही फुटपाथ पर टेडीबियर बेचा करता था। सूरत से उसने कम्प्यूटर फोटो एडिटिंग व डिजाइनिंग का कोर्स किया है। ललित ने बारहवीं तक पढ़ाई की है। 
 
दो हजार के नए नोटों के साथ पकड़े गए नाबालिगों ने बताया कि उसे ये नकली नोट नागाबाबा तलाई मेट्रो टॉकिज की गली में स्थित खेमानीजी के मकान को ललित ने किराए पर लिया हुआ है और वही कुछ लोगो के साथ मिलकर नकली नोटों की छपाई किया करता था।

जब इस मामले की पड़ताल में पुलिस पूर्व भाजपा पार्षद जीवन गुरू से बातचीत करने पहुंची तो, अपने बाचाव में उन्होंने कहा कि ललित मेरा भतीजा है लेकिन इस समय फोन बंद आ रहा है। जब ललित मिले तो उससे पुछिए के वो किससे इशारे पर नकली नोट छापने का धंधा कर रहा था।

Courtesy: National Dastak

The post मध्य प्रदेश: नकली नोट छापने वाला भाजपा पार्षद का भतीजा फरार appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Modi’s note ban will go down in history as one of the biggest failures of government policy ever to have been seen in any country ever. Not only has there been immense misery and suffering for common people across the country and irreparable economic loss, but even the announced goals of this foolish plan have not been met. Let us look at what Modi claimed to achieve and what really happened.

Black Money
The unearthing of black money was the main objective of note bandi announced by Modi on Nov.8. In this his move has spectacularly failed, as was predicted by most economists and experts. Modi was foolishly expecting that black money held in cash would not be returned. Govt. officials said that anything between Rs.3-6 lakh crore would be unreturned. But all this wishful thinking has come a cropper. As per latest figures, out of the Rs.15.44 lakh crore worth of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes that were in circulation before Nov.8, over Rs.14 lakh crore has been returned to banks by the people. Economists had indicated that a small fraction of black wealth is held in cash. Even that has been successfully recirculated by the owners using various devious means. In fact the black economy continues like before.

Terrorism
J&K has seen the highest number of fatalities – 266 – in terrorist violence this year since 2010. Included among these are 187 security forces personnel, the highest toll since 2008. Specifically, in the two months since the note ban took effect, this year saw 43 fatalities compared to 22 last year. In September Modi govt. carried out the so called surgical strikes against Pakistan claiming that this would curb terrorist activities in J&K. But the figures say something else: during September to December 2016, 63 people were killed in J&K including 39 security personnel. In 2015, in the same three months, 43 people were killed including 31 security personnel. Clearly, neither notebandi nor the surgical strike have succeeded in curbing terrorist activities in the trouble torn state.

In fact deaths due to all kinds of terrorist activities in the whole country (J&K, N-E, Naxalites etc.) have increased this year to 890 from 722 last year. This is a direct consequence of the Modi govt.’s short-sighted and opportunist policies based on a weird mix of power hungry opportunism and jingoism, glued together by the idea that security forces can be used as cannon fodder to quell anything and everything.

The idea that terrorists would be unable to function if new currency was introduced was blown apart when two terrorists who were shot dead on Nov 22 at Bandipore, J&K were found in possession of the new Rs.2000 notes.

Fake Currency
This was initially touted by the govt. as one of the objectives but it was a patently ridiculous one. A study commissioned by the govt. had itself pointed out that the best estimate of fake currency in circulation was Rs.400 cr, which is about 0.2% of the total currency in circulation. The study had also said that it can be tackled by better screening at the banks. Withdrawing nearly Rs.16 lakh crore in order to find a mere 0.2% is like taking a sword to swat a fly. In any case, while there are no reports of any significant recovery of fake currency notes in the last two months, we have reports that new currency notes are already copied and are now in circulation in lakhs.
Cashless
Although making India go cashless was not officially announced as an objective of demonetization, Modi himself and his ministers and supporters have been drumming this since the beginning. In a country where 76% population does not have Internet coverage and just 17% people have smartphones, it is a travesty to think that people will adopt cashless payments in any significant way. Be that as it may, to coerce people into adopting cashless transactions by the disastrous note ban is nothing short of an open attack on the lives and rights of people. More than that, it is also a way of privatization of cash transactions and allowing private companies to make a profit every time you buy something. The govt. has thus acted only in favour of big corporations in pushing this line.

Bad Administration
One thing that was revealed by this whole exercise is that Modi is a disastrous administrator, unlike the image his supporters had hyped up about him. The whole note ban exercise was his own pet project, developed in secret by him with a team working at his residence, as if India is not a democracy but some banana republic run by a dictator. The planning was so faulty and full of holes that while people were put to enormous hardship for the past two months, those who actually had black money in cash successfully turned it into white. More than twenty changes were made in the rules as time passed. Such elementary considerations as letting farmers have cash so that they could proceed with sowing of wheat, or marriage expenses or inability of vast population to go cashless were not thought out before in this maniacal and ill-conceived zeal to implement a nonsensical plan.

Courtesy: Communist Party of India Marxist

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