Video of portable Indian currency printing machine stumps Bengal forest dept officers
The video, showing the machine in operation and printing fake currency notes of ₹500 denomination, was stored in the mobile phone of one of the arrested men. The videos were passed on to the police and the government was alerted.
A video of a portable Indian currency printing machine, measuring about two square feet in dimension and fitted with two gauges and six buttons, stumped West Bengal forest department officers on Friday when they raided a house in Alipurduar district in north Bengal in search of wildlife parts. Two men were arrested.
Such a machine has never been seen before, the officers said. The video, showing the machine in operation and printing fake currency notes of ₹500 denomination, was stored in the mobile phone of one of the arrested men. The videos were passed on to the police and the government was alerted.
The suspects, Deepak Pradhan (44) and Depen Mukhia (40) are both residents of Alipurduar. They are in police custody.
Watch: Portable machine to print fake currency notes found in Bengal
The officers also found a video showing bundles of 2000 rupee notes, said Sanjay Dutta, forest range officer, Belakoba and head of the special task force in north Bengal.
The men were arrested from a house in the Jaigaon area which lies close to the Bengal-Bhutan border. The raid was conducted on the basis of information given by five Bhutanese nationals arrested on November 20. A live pangolin was seized from them. These five men, who were remanded to police custody, told forest department officers that the two men in Jaigaon had a rhino horn that was up for sale.
Though the officers did not find any animal parts, the videos turned out to be a major lead in investigations into fake Indian currency note (FICN) rackets in many parts of Bengal. The two men said the rhino horn is in Bhutan. They said it is in the possession of one of their associates, Santosh Rai, who is a resident of Dalsingpara in Alipurduar.
