VADODARA: Even if it embarrasses you when the roadside vendor holds your Rs500 note against the light to ascertain if its genuine, you cannot blame him.
For, Gujarat has the earned the notoriety of having the third highest seizures of fake currency in the country after Maharashtra and West Bengal. In fact, last year the state topped the same list in fake currency seizures!
A report on Crime in India in 2020 released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) revealed that 32 persons were arrested last year in Gujarat in fake currency rackets. Large number of counterfeit seizures managed to keep the police on their toes. The police said that one of the reasons behind such high circulation of currency notes in the state is that it shares its border with Pakistan.
“The neighbouring country often pumps in fake currency notes through the sea and land border that we share with it. The aim behind such racket is to destabilize the country’s economy,” said a senior police official. The cops also said that the state has several businesses that are cash rich and hence it becomes easier to circulate fake currency here. Many gangs also source fake currency notes from Malda district in West Bengal that is one of the hubs for such rackets.
The Gujarat police have busted several such rackets wherein residents of West Bengal, who had sourced fake currency notes from Malda, travelled all the way to Gujarat to circulate it in the market. In 2020, Maharashtra topped the list of states with fake currency seizures as 38,664 fake currency notes of the value of Rs 2.63 crore were seized in the state. The police said that as compared to the previous years, fake currency circulation dropped in Gujarat in 2020 due to the lockdown and restrictions on the movement due to Covid. Trade bodies in the state keep organizing awareness programmes to ensure that businessmen and traders don’t fall victim to these rackets.
