Patna NIA Court Sentences Two in Bangladesh-India Fake Currency Network

Patna: The NIA Special Court, Patna (Bihar), on Tuesday sentenced two accused to imprisonment and fine in a Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) smuggling case involving Bangladeshi and Nepalese nationals.

Md. Mumtaz and Md. Baitullah, both hailing from Bihar, have been awarded 7 years imprisonment with fine of Rs. 8000 in NIA case RC-01/2020/NIA/DLI. The special court convicted the accused under sections 489B, 489C, 120B of IPC and Section 16 & 18 of UA(P) Act. 

The case relates to the seizure of FICN having total face value of Rs. 1,90,500, in denominations of Rs. 2000 and Rs. 500,  from Md. Mumtaz at Sarkari Bus Stand, Purnea, Bihar, on 3rd December 2019. 

NIA, which took over the investigation and re-registered the case under sections 489B & 489C of IPC and section 16 of UA (P) Act, established the role of a total of six accused in the case. It found that Md Mumtaz, along with Biltu Mahato, Golam Mortaza @Citu, Sadek Mia, Biltu Mahto of Nepal, Md. Baitullah and Md. Munshi of Bangladesh, had conspired to procure and smuggle the fake notes from Bangladesh to India with the aim to destabilise India’s economy.

 NIA had, through different chargesheets, filed charges against all the six accused between May 2020 and July 2021. While Golam Martuja @ Citu died in judicial custody during trial, Biltu Mahato Md. Munshi were declared absconders in the case.

 As per NIA Investigations, the currency was collected by accused from Golam Mortaza and handed over to Md. Mumtaz for further delivery. Md. Mumtaz was working under orders from Biltu Mahto. Golam Martuja used to collect the FICN consignments from Md. Munshi, while Sadek Mia was an associate of Munshi.

Further trial against the remaining accused continues.