NIA court sentences 3 to five-year imprisonment in fake currency case in UP

New Delhi, Nov 21 (PTI) A special NIA court in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday sentenced three persons to rigorous imprisonment in a case related to the supply of high-quality fake Indian currency notes (FICN) smuggled from Bangladesh, an official said.

Murad Alam, Tausif Alam and Sariful Islam had pleaded guilty before the special judge in Lucknow, a spokesperson of the federal agency said.

The official said the three have been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of four and five years along with fines for separate offences under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The sentences will run concurrently, the spokesperson said.

The official said the case was initially registered by the Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) in December 2019 following the recovery of high-quality FICN having a face value of Rs 2,49,500 from the possession of Murad Alam.

The NIA took over the investigation after re-registering the case in February 2020 and had earlier charge-sheeted four accused in the case.

The investigations had revealed that Murad Alam, a resident of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, had received the FICN consignment from Tausif Alam and had carried it for delivery to Shahnawaj Ansari, hailing from Purnea in Bihar, the spokesperson said.

He added the consignment was supplied to Tausif Alam by Sariful Islam, who had contacts in Bangladesh from where he used to procure the fake currency notes.

The investigations had also established that all the accused persons were members of the FICN supply network and the fake currency was purportedly smuggled from across the border, the spokesperson said.

The official said the accused had conspired to smuggle, sell and procure the FICN and had kept it in their possession before supplying it to different parts of the country. PTI SKL SMN