"The offences for which they stand convicted is for trafficking of FICN and possession thereof. The quantity of the FICN recovered is large," Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh said while handing down the jail term.
The court convicted Maqsood, 40, Kamil, 44, Anwar Ali, 64 and Razia, 44, for offences under sections 489B (using as genuine forged or counterfeit currency-note), 489C (possessing any forged or counterfeit currency-note) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
It also referred to a Supreme Court observation and said the apex court had rightly observed that "our country was becoming notorious for ever-increasing number of cases involving counterfeiting of currency notes and it was becoming increasingly difficult for common people to be sure whether what he was receiving as currency note was genuine or not."
A team of police officials was constituted and both the accused were apprehended. They led the police to arrest the other two accused-- Razia, a UP native and Maqsood, who hails from Bihar, it said.
The court awarded jail terms to Kamil, who was apprehended with fake currency notes of Rs 3.5 lakh, Anwar with Rs 50,000 and Razia with Rs one lakh, adding that Maqsood was the main conspirator and same charges also stood proved against him.