Troops of South Bengal Frontier of BSF today apprehended two inter-state smugglers from West Bengal's Malda district and seized Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) having a face value of Rs nine lakh.
The two racketeers were apprehended from near Sohapur in a special joint operation by BSF and Malda police following information received by the border guard's intelligence branch that a consignment of FICN was moving from Malda to Farakka, a release issued by PIB said.
The BSF and police then positioned themselves at three check points to apprehend the racketeers, intercepted a car with Punjab registration and detained the two suspects, it said.
On searching the car, a plastic bag containing fake notes of face value of Rs nine lakh in denominations of Rs 1000, 500 were seized.
Indian currency of Rs 5,000, four ATM cards, two Chinese wristwatch, four mobile phones and miscellaneous personal items were also recovered from their possession.
The duo revealed their identities as Sunesh Sharma(50 yrs) and Rajan Chopera (25 yrs).
They were handed over to Kaliachak police station and an FIR has been lodged, the release said.
Malda has become the hub of fake currency note smuggling from across the border. In probably the largest haul of its kind, BSF had on May 6 seized FICN of face value of Rs 64.65 lakh from a village under Baishnab Nagar police station near Indo-Bangladesh border in the district.
Fake notes of face value of Rs 15.65 lakh was seized from the district in December last year, Rs 2.84 lakh FICN in February and Rs 4 lakh FICN in March this year.
