In a first, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court here today sentenced six accused in a 2009 fake currency case to life imprisonment, terming the possession and circulation of Indian counterfeit notes as an "act of terrorism".
Special NIA judge Prithiviraj Chavan pronounced the sentence after he convicted all the six arrested accused -- Abdul Shaikh, Mohammed Aizul, Ravi Dhiren Gosh Nooruddin Bari, Mohammed Samad and Aizul Shaikh -- yesterday under relevant sections of IPC and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1000 on each of the accused.
"This is the first time that the fake currency has been covered under the ambit of a terrorist act," Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian said, adding that terrorist acts does not always be a blood crime.
The notes were printed in Pakistan, she said.
This case happens to be the first case investigated by the NIA here after it was set up post 26/11 attacks to probe and prosecute pan-India crimes, terror related cases and offences affecting the 'sovereignty, security and integrity of India'.
According to NIA, during investigation it was revealed that Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) of denomination of Rs 1000 of 2AQ series seized in this case were also recovered at the Kochi currency chest of Reserve Bank of India.
"The similar nature of series of notes found at two different places indicated that there was a wide network operating in circulation of FICN and also the source of both these FICN (seized in Kochi and Mumbai) was the same," said NIA in a release.
The expert report of RBI obtained by NIA stated that many covert features of genuine Indian currency were successfully imitated and could have been achieved only through highly sophisticated machinery only available with sovereign governments. A similar opinion was given by experts of Bank Note Press (BNP) Mysore, it said.
