The Border Security Force has seized 348 fake currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination after an operation along the Indo-Bangladesh International Border (IB) in West Bengal’s Malda district.
The incident happened around midnight on Monday when a Border Security Force (BSF) patrol laid an ambush in the Churiantpur border post area of Malda to nab Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) smugglers active along this border.
Officials said that around 11:45 PM a packet was flung from across the IB fence gate even as some miscreants were also spotted on both the sides. While the smugglers managed to escape when they were challenged by BSF personnel, they said, the patrol party seized the packet which had 348 fake notes of Rs 2,000 denomination having a face value of Rs 6.96 lakh.
The seized FICN has been handed to the Kaliachak police, they added. With this, the BSF has so far seized FICN having face value of Rs 14.98 lakh this year from the border area here. The Kaliachak and Malda areas of West Bengal along the border are notorious for FICN smuggling. In 2016, BSF’s South Bengal Frontier (comprising five border districts of West Bengal) had seized fake currency with face value of over Rs 1.47 crore and arrested 19 smugglers.