NIA court in Bengaluru sentences counterfeit money dealer to six years in prison

New Delhi [India]September 1 (ANI): The NIA special court in Bengaluru has sentenced an accused in the 2018 counterfeit currency seizure case to six years of simple imprisonment, the NIA said in a statement.

The NIA said that accused Sariful Islam @ Sarifulla @ Sharifuddin, a native of West Bengal, in case RC-12/2018/NIA/DLI (Chikodi FICN case) was also sentenced to pay a fine of Rs 5,000. He is the seventh accused to be convicted in this case.

NIA investigations in the case had revealed that the accused along with six others were involved in smuggling 41 fake Indian currency notes (FICNS) of denomination of Rs 82,000 from Bangladesh border to different parts of India. Sariful Islam had fraudulently obtained a SIM card to communicate with his co-accused and procure the fake currency notes from West Bengal and circulate them across the country.

The investigation also revealed a trail of several such transactions by the accused, who had earlier transferred FICN amounting to Rs. 10.30 lakh to the main convict Dalim Mia in West Bengal. The conspiracy was aimed at destabilising India's monetary position and economic security.

The NIA is continuing its investigation against two Bangladeshi nationals who supplied FICN to the accused in the present case. So far, the agency has filed a total of three chargesheets in the case.

Earlier, the NIA had carried out searches at seven locations in two districts of Bihar on Friday as part of a large-scale raid against the CPI (Maoist) and seized numerous incriminating digital devices and documents as well as live ammunition.

The searches were carried out at five locations in Kaimur district and two locations in Rohtas district in Bihar following the arrest of two key CPI (Maoist) leaders, Vijay Kumar Arya and Umesh Chaudhary, who were arrested by the NIA in Rohtas district in April 2022. Tax receipts, Naxal pamphlets of the banned terrorist organisation and digital devices were seized from them. (ANI)