Nepal Police has been seizing ‘fake Indian currencies’ along with the racketeers and their kingpins. But, this has no stopped the racketeers to indulge in the crime of printing and circulating counterfeit money within Nepal and circulating it across the length and breadth of India using the Nepalese territory by taking advantage of the open border with the southern neighbor.

It is a ‘hide and seek’ game between Nepal Police and the racketeers of counterfeit money. More the police are vigilant, smarter in the operations racketeers become.

About 20 years ago, few racketeers were nabbed in Nepal along with printing machine to produce counterfeit money from Assam. Incidents like this kept coming into the light where illegal traders and criminals engaged in dealing with fake Indian currency fell into the net of Nepal Police.

Last Friday on May 24, Nepal Police arrested 6 people and confiscated around 8 million fake Indian currency from them. DIG Bishwaraj Pokhrel, the spokesperson of Nepal Police, revealed that six arrestees included 3 Nepali citizens and 3 Pakistani nationals along with their kingpin Yunus Ansari, son of Ex-Minister of Nepal Salim Miya Ansari. Counterfeit Indian currency has been seized several times from the land of Nepal.

Arrestees with counterfeit note

March 2010:  IRs 998,000 Indian counterfeit note confiscated from New Road, Kathmandu

February 2011: IRs 3.495 Million Indian counterfeit note confiscated from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

September 2010: One man arrested from Kathmandu with 4 million Indian counterfeit note

October 2011: Rs 3.99 million Indian counterfeit note confiscated from TIA.

December 2011: Rs 10.22 million Indian counterfeit note confiscated from Kalanki, Kathmandu

March 2012: Rs 9.8 million Indian counterfeit note confiscated from TIA.

July 2012: Rs 2.950 million Indian counterfeit note confiscated from New Road, Kathmandu.

April 2013: 2 Pakistani national held with 10 million Indian counterfeit note

May 2016: Rs 2.888 million Indian counterfeit note confiscated from Kathmandu

May 2016: One Pakistani national held with Rs 3.6 million Indian counterfeit note from TIA.

March 2018: One held with Rs 83,000 Indian counterfeit note from Kanchanpur, Mahendranagar.

November 2018: One held with Rs 96,000 Indian counterfeit note held from Damak, Jhapa.

May 2019: Three Pakistani national and three Nepali national held with Rs 70.679 million from TIA

The arrest of racketeers with the seizure of a large amount of counterfeit Indian money is the proof of the fact that Nepal is the breeding ground for those who are involved in printing and circulating the fake currency within the territory of Nepal and outside in India.

Devendra Subedi, former AIG of Nepal Police, accepts the collusion of criminals from Nepal with international gangs in order to circulate the counterfeit Indian currency in bordering Indian states and deep within the territory of southern neighbor.

“Fake Indian currency makes its way into Nepal from air route through Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) and then using the land of Kathmandu and other road-routes enter the territory of India – our southern neighbor,” says Subedi.

Investigating agencies have pinned four ‘routes’ using which counterfeit Indian money are sneaked into the territory of India.

These routes are:

Pakistan/Karachi – Doha — Kathmandu

Pakistan – Oman – Kathmandu

Bangkok – Kathmandu

Singapore- Kathmandu

Apart from the above routes, other routes have also been employed to pump in counterfeit Indian money inside Nepal.

Former AIG Nepal Police Subedi adds, “Based on the arrests of racketeers with their kingpins and seizures of counterfeit money as of now, mostly Pakistani nationals are found to have involved in this crime using the air routes from Karachi, Oman, Doha amongst others for illegally transporting the counterfeit Indian money to Nepal before it is circulated in India. Nationals of different countries have been colluding with each other to spread the network of fake currency racket.”

Nepalese land being used as a transit route  

According to the investigation, of the total counterfeit Indian money landing in Nepal, 90 percent gets circulated in India and the remaining 10 percent is transacted in the domestic market of Nepal.

Former DIG of Nepal Police Hemant Malla says racketeers of fake currency are trying to use Nepal as a transit point for their illegal activities.

Indian Security Agencies have often brought this in the knowledge of Nepalese authorities that counterfeit Indian money mostly enters India via the land routes of Nepal and Bangladesh besides Sri Lanka and UAE. The operation of illegal trade in fake Indian currency by using Nepal soil as a transit route has increased in 2009-10.

Bundles of counterfeit Indian money are seeing the Indian market sent through Nepal and Bangladesh. Even Banks in India have begun to receive fake currency through depositors account.

International network of counterfeit money

Recent hauls of counterfeit money allude towards the involvement of international criminal gangs and agencies in fake currency racket. Nepal Police spokesperson Pokhrel says that trading in fake currency takes place in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, UAE, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

A few years back in Kathmandu, few Muslims allegedly involved in fake currency racket were killed. Most of those who are involved in this racket are Pakistani, as per the revelation of Nepal Police.