Click to play videoNew Delhi: Very sophisticated, fake Indian currency has been pumped into the Indian market and it's almost impossible to detect. CNN-IBN has learnt that India's most wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim, is behind the operation to flood the country with fake currency and his henchman, Chotta Shakeel, handles all the operations from Karachi.
CNN-IBN has also learnt that Pakistan's ISI has been using Dawood since the late 1990s to manufacture and send the fake currency notes into India.
Initially the fake notes were smuggled through Nepal and the man responsible was Salim Miya Ansari - a former cabinet minister during King Gyanendra's regime. Intelligence sources indicate that now his son, Yunus Ansari, runs the business in close coordination with the Pakistani Embassy in Kathmandu.
But it not just Nepal any more. Bases have been set in six countries across Asia to send the fake currency into India.
- Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia
- Colombo in Sri Lanka
- Bangkok in Thailand
- Dhaka and Rajshahi in Bangladesh
- Kathmandu and Nepalgunj in Nepal
- Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi in UAE
According to Home Ministry sources, the most preferred route is the air because without specific intelligence, it's impossible to detect fake currency.
Investigation by the Directorate of revenue intelligence shows that from Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, fake currency is usually sent to Calicut, Bangalore, Mangalore and Mumbai.
A new trend shows that it's also sent to Colombo from Dubai. An agent then goes from Calicut or Chennai to Colombo and collects the consigment and comes back.
From Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, it's sent directly to two places - Kathmandu and Dhaka - from where the fake notes are sent into India through the land route, across the porous eastern borders of the country.
In 2008-2009, fake currency operations have seen a sudden spurt. Nearly Rs 2.5 crore worth of fake Indian notes have been seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. Home Ministry sources say that it is just the tip of the iceberg, which means consignments worth crores of fake Indian notes have come into the country undetected.
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