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Indian origin man declared a global terrorist by US – know who he is

OpIndia Staff
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Indian origin man declared a global terrorist by US – know who he is

Mohammad Shafi Armar, the principal recruiter for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the Indian subcontinent has been declared as the ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ by the US State Treasury Department.

30-year-old Armar, alias Chhote Maula, Anjan Bhai and Yousuf al-Hindi is a native of Bhatkal in Karnataka.

This is for the first time that the US has imposed sanctions against a terrorist originally hailing from India. Shafir Armar is said to be currently operating from Afghanistan or Syria.

“Mohammed Shafi Armar is a leader and head recruiter in India for the Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group, ISIS,” the US State Department said in a statement.

“He has cultivated a group of dozens of ISIS sympathisers who are involved in terrorist activities across India, such as plotting attacks, procuring weapons, and identifying locations for terrorist training camps,” the statement said.

“These actions are part of a continued effort to target individuals and entities that willfully provide support to ISIS in order to constrict this violent terror group’s operational reach and shut off its access points to the international financial system,” it said.

Armar, now a key figure on jihadi landscape, earlier worked with the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen. He was said to have left for Pakistan along with his elder brother after crackdown on Indian Mujahideen cadre. Armar is believed to have created a radical Islamist organisation Ansar ul Tawhid, which later pledged its allegiance to ISIS.

Armar became the chief recruiter in India after the death of his brother Sultan Abdul Kadir in March 2015 in a US drone attack in Syria. Now he is considered as the key ally of ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Intelligence agencies suggest that tech savvy Armar has been operating on closed Facebook groups and messaging platforms like Trillion, Surespot, WhatsApp and Skype over the past few years to contact, brainwash, radicalise and recruit Muslim youths from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Reports suggest that he is responsible for forming several ISIS affiliated groups in India in the last three years including Junood al Khalifa e Hind (JKH).

It could be noted that the NIA had chargesheeted Armar for conspiring to carry out terror strikes in Delhi and Haridwar. An Interpol Red Corner notice is pending against him.

Armar came on the radar of Indian investigation agencies when the NIA was probing suspected Islamic State cadre Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam. Interrogations of Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal by the investigative agencies have highlighted Armar’s association with the ISIS. India had approached the US and the UN to designate Armar as a “global terrorist”.

How Vijay Mallya routed funds through web of shell companies

OpIndia Staff
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How Vijay Mallya routed funds through web of shell companies

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya had floated as many as 20 shell companies and used them as special purpose vehicle to route funds. Directors of these letter-box companies are either his personal staff or retired officials from his company.

This has been revealed in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) chargesheet filed before a special PMLA court in Mumbai in connection to the Rs 900 crore IDBI-KFA loan default case.

“Mallya was holding directly or indirectly movable and immovable assets, in the form of shares of publicly listed companies, by way of creating a web of shell companies. The assets were being in shell/ dummy companies created by Mallya,” the ED chargesheet said.

“Mallya has nominated directors in those companies who were either his personal staff, retired company official or a third person,” the chargesheet, which runs into 5000-pages, said.

The agency has identified shell companies such as Ms PE Data Centre Resources Private Limited, Ms Pharma Trading Limited, Ms Kingfisher Finvest Limited, Devi Investment Private Limited, Ms Mallya Investment Private Limited, Ms Explicit Consultancy Private Limited, Ms Ambitious Computech Private Limited and Vilora Consultancy Private Limited among others. 

The chargesheet has mentioned a transaction made to a firm which reportedly had dummy directors. “An amount of Rs 63.10 crore (approximately) was paid to Ms UBICS Technologies Pvt Ltd (controlled by Mallya). Directors are dummy directors acting on behalf of Mallya”.

“This company was used as a special purpose vehicle to route the funds of Ms KFA as no other transaction from any other company has been noticed in this,” it said.

The ED chargesheet shows how Mallya routed overseas over Rs 417 crore of the Rs 860.92 crore he secured as loan from IDBI Bank for aircraft rental leasing and operational expenses of Kingfisher Airlines in clear violation of rules. It talks about diversion of funds to Mallya-owned entities such as Watson and Force India and software consulting firm UBICS. The chargesheet further suggests that funds were diverted Mallya’s Formula-1 car racing event and the two firms controlled by him — UBICS Technologies Pvt Ltd and UB Engineering Pvt Ltd. 

“There were unencumbered (free of debt) properties more than Rs 1,760.03 crore in addition to the properties mentioned in the personal guarantee submitted by Mallya to the IDBI bank”, the chargesheet said.

“It is suspected that major portion out of the amount of Rs 417.29 crore was remitted out of India to overseas parties from IDBI bank,” it said.

“Thus, the acts of Mallya, Ms UBHL and others, establish that a criminal conspiracy was hatched for obtaining or sanctioning of bank loan to KFA in gross violations of established procedures and the airline had no intention for repayment of loan of Rs 900 crore since the beginning,” the chargesheet said.

“The said loan amount along with interest totalling Rs 1,301.67 crore, therefore, falls within the sweep of the proceeds of crime in terms of section….Of the PMLA,” it said.

Apart from Mallya, the ED chargesheet has named eight other accused including his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), his United Breweries (Holding) Limited and senior employees and executives of KFA and the IDBI Bank.

The Enforcement Directorate is in the process of confiscating a Mallyaa-owned coffee estate in Karnataka’s Coorg and other assets in Bengaluru. These assets were attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Recently, the ED had confiscated a Rs 100 crore worth farm house owned by Mallyaa in Maharashtra’s Alibaug. The agency has already frozen Rs 9,680 crore of property belonging to Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines.

Presidential elections: How parties are placed in the Electoral College

Saswat Panigrahi
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Presidential elections: How parties are placed in the Electoral College

The race to Raisina Hill is heating up with the ruling coalition and the opposition chalking out their respective strategies for the upcoming Presidential election, scheduled to be held on 17 July.

The Presidential election involves a complex voting pattern. The President of India is elected by an Electoral College comprising of members of both the Houses of the Parliament and members of the state legislative assemblies. A total of 4896 voters – 4120 MLAs and 776 elected MPs – are eligible to cast their ballot to elect the next President of India.

In the Electoral College, the value of each MP’s vote is 708. But the value of each MLA’s vote differs according to the size of the respective state assemblies and population of the respective states. While an MLA in UP has the highest vote value of 208, an MLA in Sikkim has the lowest vote value of 7.

Let’s take a look at how the parties and alliances are placed in the Electoral College.

NDA: After the BJP’s emphatic win in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, the BJP-led NDA is comfortably placed in the Electoral College. Currently, the NDA’s vote share stands at 48.64 per cent. There is a chance that Shiv Sena could play hard ball in this Presidential election also. It could be noted that in the last two Presidential elections, Sena broke ranks with NDA and voted for the UPA candidates.

This time also, the Sena insisted on RSS Sarasanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat’s candidature despite knowing very well that Bhagwat would never contest the Presidential election. If Shiv Sena won’t go with the NDA this time, the NDA’s vote share would reduce to 46 per cent. So basically the NDA needs the support of only one or two opposition parties to cross the half-way mark. In other words, the NDA needs around 20,000 more votes to ensure victory of its candidate.

UPA: On the other hand, the Congress-led Opposition block, which consists of 17 parties – CPM, CPI, JDU, RJD, TMC, SP, BSP, NCP, DMK and some other regional parties – has a 35.47 per cent vote share in the Electoral College. But the Opposition block is facing the key challenge of keeping a united front in the run up to the Presidential election with indications that that some partners may slip away.

So far, Sharad Pawar’s NCP is non-committal to the opposition bandwagon. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel maintains that the Opposition should wait as the government wants to talk to them. There remains question mark over JD(U) after Nitish Kumar skipped the Opposition meeting, for the Presidential election, on 25 May and joined a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Trinamool Congress is yet to make any committeemen to the Opposition block.

Non-NDA, non-UPA parties: Apart from the Congress-led Opposition block, there six Opposition parties – AIADMK, BJD, TRS, YSR Congress Party, INLD and AAP who maintain ‘equal distance’ from the BJP and the Congress. Together, these six parties hold a total of 13 per cent vote share in the Electoral College.

It would be interesting to see which party will go with the ruling establishment and which one will stand with the opposition. Obviously all the six parties won’t stand together in the Electoral College. Apart from this there are tiny regional parties which also account for around 3 per cent vote share in the Electoral College.

Fake journalist caught selling fake helicopter tickets in Jammu & Kashmir

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Fake journalist caught selling fake helicopter tickets in Jammu & Kashmir

In a “you cannot make this stuff up” incident, a man who was claiming to be a journalist cum travel agent has been caught by Jammu’s Crime Branch for running a fake helicopter ticket scam.

The man whose name real name is Sanjay Bajaj used to meet gullible pilgrims under the name of Sidharth Sharma and sell them fake helicopter tickets for the 2017 Amarnath Yatra. He ironically used to bring further credibility to himself by posing as a journalist and the state bureau chief of some news outlets named Tezz Khabar, Nation Live News and Keyline News. He had reportedly minted some Rs 15 lakh via running this fraud.

Arrested on Sunday, he was brought before a Tehsildar and was sent to a 6 day police remand. He was arrested on the basis of a complaint by a certain Rajesh Gupta who is the representative of a Helicopter services company Global Vectra Helicorp Ltd.

The helicopter company had a contract with the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board for providing helicopter service on Neelgrath-Panchtarni route. The one way prices for the same had been fixed at Rs 1715.

The offices of the helicopter agency had reportedly received a call on 4th June from a Sudarshan Sharma of Jammu who had asked them to authenticate 22 helicopter tickets which he had bought from the accused Sanjay Bajaj. Sudarshan had also apparently shared the copies of the tickets on WhatsApp, which on scrutiny were found to be fake. The tickets also cost about Rs 3250 which were almost double the regulated price of Rs 1715.

Sudarshan was immediately informed that he had been duped and no such person was authorised to sell the tickets. A complaint was lodged and the subsequent preliminary investigation by the Crime Branch authorities found that the accused Sanjay Bajaj used to prepare forged helicopter tickets at his Jammu based company named Sidhi Vinayak Tour & Travels.

He was reportedly running this scam since long via his unregistered travel agency and had cheated many innocent pilgrims.

Men beat up and force woman to chant ‘Allah’ and ‘Ram’, journalists hide ‘Allah’ part

OpIndia Staff
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Men beat up and force woman to chant ‘Allah’ and ‘Ram’, journalists hide ‘Allah’ part

In an example of how half-truths are used to peddle an agenda, a bizarre and cruel incident was used by some journalists and celebrities to push ‘Hindu intolerance’ narrative on Twitter yesterday (and it continues even today).

The incident reportedly happened on Tuesday earlier this week in Nagaur district of Rajasthan where a group of men, some hiding their faces, were recorded on camera abusing and assaulting a woman with plastic pipes and forcing her to chant religious slogans. It was not clear who recorded the incident, but the video clearly showed that the men were forcing the woman to chant “Allah” and “Jai Shri Ram”.


In the above video, one can hear clearly that the woman was asked to chant “Allah” at least three times, and then asked to chant “Ram”, “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman” once subsequently. This ‘communal counting’ is silly given that the incident itself should be outrageous enough, but we are forced to do so since a section of the mainstream media decided to give it communal colour.

Local media reports confirm that the incident was purely criminal and the motive behind it might have been a suspicion that the woman could have been the unknown miscreant, who apparently has been cutting hairs of villagers, especially of women, in the area during the night. However, this incident, which highlights lack of policing in the area, was presented as a hate crime involving Hindutva elements.

It started with a Hindustan Times journalist tweeting only about the “Jai Shri Ram” part and hiding the “Allah” part, thus making it appear as a case of “Hindu intolerance” in a BJP ruled state. The journalist’s intention to link it with religion and politics becomes clear in a subsequent tweet, where he tags CPM leader Sitaram Yechury and links the incident to another incident of “cow vigilantism” that happened in the state last week:


His trick worked, and Hindustan Times too played its part by re-tweeting the journalist’s half-truth. It was enough for people to lament “Hindutva” and “beef politics” and go on an ideological overdrive when the incident had nothing to do with any communal or partisan politics.

Here is one sample reaction from Sagarika Ghose, who of late has been on a mission to spread fake news and misinformation to push her agenda:


This is not for the first time when Indian mainstream media has used half-truths to peddle a partisan agenda. Earlier we had seen how HuffPo ignored killings of Hindus and focused only on Muslim victims regarding an unfortunate incident in Jharkhand, while before that, The Hindu had blamed only Hindu groups in a case of forceful cancellation of an event where other religious groups were also involved.

Fortunately, not everyone in the media was pushing the agenda this time. Rajasthan Patrika, generally considered close to the Congress, reported with full facts, raising the relevant issue of law and order.

News agency ANI too reported without hiding the “Allah” part. It should be further noted that two men in this case have been arrested and police is investigating more about the case, including about the person who shot the video and uploaded it on social media.

However, this has not deterred people, especially journalists, from continuing to peddle their partisan agenda. Following is a tweet by a former Hindustan Times journalist, who quotes the same ANI tweet that mentioned “Allah”, but decides to focus only on “Jai Shri Ram”:


And then they claim that the media in India is not free.

Maoists look to go hi-tech in spreading propaganda and fighting war

OpIndia Staff
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Maoists look to go hi-tech in spreading propaganda and fighting war

It appears that terrorists too want to keep up with technology. A 25-page-long document retrieved by the Chhattisgarh Police in April suggests that the Maoists are increasingly looking to use internet and new technologies for their war.

According to reports, in a marked shift in the Maoist movement’s propaganda machinery, top Maoist leadership in Chhattisgarh has issued guidelines regarding the use of technology to its cadre.

“Don’t access websites on the radar of Intelligence agencies, store important documents in memory cards, do not carry mobile phones with SIM cards, tap WhatsApp….” These are some of the guidelines issued by the Maoist leadership in Chhattisgarh.

The contents of the document which has also revealed plans to create a new Maoist zone – covering pockets of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra – is said to be have been drafted by “MMC Leading team” in March 2017. It appears that Maoists are concentrating to increase their strength entirely in and around Chhattisgarh after reports indicated that they were being weakened in other regions of India.

Under the paragraph titled “The spread of propaganda” the document reads, “Propaganda is being carried out via pamphlets, banners, posters, statements and these days through mobile phones and WhatsApp. After taking decisions, we must concentrate quickly on propaganda material and this must also be planned… We cannot depend only on computers.”

In a first, the documents stats that Maoist cadre up to the rank of divisional commander are allowed the use of mobile phones and tablets for “leadership expansion and the ease of reading material as opposed to carrying books”.

Top officials of Chhattisgarh Police, those who have studied the documents, explained that this shift in stance by the Left-wing terrorists is because of two reasons.

“Often, after an exchange of fire, even if there are no casualties, the Maoists have to leave their camps in a hurry, leaving material behind. This literature tells us of their status, strength and other strategic aspects. If they begin to use memory cards in phones, which they carry on their person, we will potentially only get this information if there is an arrest, or a body recovered,” a senior police officer was quoted as saying.

“Second, even though there are connectivity blackout areas deep inside the forests of Rajnandgaon and Kabirdham, the mobile network is better than in Bastar. That may also have prompted this decision, because there is a need to adapt,” the police official said.

 Following are the guidelines mentioned in the Maoist document:

  • “Don’t carry mobile phones with SIM cards. Every electronic device has a microchip which conducts its primary functioning. And every one has an IEMI number which recognises other devices. These days, every smartphone or tablet has GPS tracking facilities. When your phone comes into mobile service or WiFi internet service, it gets registered on their servers.”
  • “It is wrong to believe that locations are not revealed if you download from the internet. Special websites are under the watch of intelligence agencies, and it is noted that what site is being accessed from where how many times. This has to be kept in mind while downloading.”
  • “Do not keep important documents in the inbuilt memory of phones. Keep these in a separate memory card and use it when needed. For other documents keep a separate memory card.”
  • “Attach your device to an updated computer and scan for viruses every six months. Acquire an anti virus that can be put in the phone if possible.”
  • “Keep WiFi switched off on the phones. When a download is required, give permission to your device, or else ordinarily keep it on the mode where permission is not granted. Switch on Bluetooth when required or keep it off.”

ED files first chargesheet against Vijay Mallya – know what he is charged with

OpIndia Staff
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ED files first chargesheet against Vijay Mallya – know what he is charged with

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed its first chargesheet against liquor baron Vijay Mallya, his now-grounded Kingfisher Airlines and his United Breweries (Holding) Limited in connection to the Rs 900 crore IDBI-KFA loan default case. Senior executives of the Kingfisher Airlines and the IDBI (Industrial Development Bank of India) Bank have also been named in the chargesheet.

The chargesheet, which runs into 5000 pages, was filed before a special anti-money laundering court in Mumbai on Wednesday (14 June). The chargesheet was filed under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Calling Mallya the “prime mover of the entire plot”, the ED chargesheet – with the help of flow charts and diagrams – explains how the bank loan fraud was done. The chargesheet describes how funds of over Rs 400 crore were moved abroad in alleged violation of rules. The chargesheet further describes how a significant portion of the funds obtained from the bank loan were diverted illegally to fund the entities of the beleaguered businessman in India and abroad.

The ED chargesheet talks about diversion of funds to Mallya-owned entities such as Watson and Force India and software consulting firm UBICS. The chargesheet further suggests that funds were diverted Mallya’s Formula-1 car racing event and the two firms controlled by him — UBICS Technologies Pvt Ltd and UB Engineering Pvt Ltd.

According to the chargesheet, Mallya, KFA along with IDBI bank officials were “criminally conspired to obtain funds to the tune of Rs 860.92 crore despite weak financials, negative net-worth, non- compliance of corporate credit policy of new client, non- quality collateral security and low credit rating of the borrower, out of which Rs 807.82 crore of principal amount remains unpaid”.

The ED chargesheet shows how Mallya routed overseas over Rs 417 crore of the Rs 860.92 crore he secured as loan from IDBI Bank for aircraft rental leasing and operational expenses of Kingfisher Airlines.

Out of the total loan of Rs 860.92 crore, sanctioned and disbursed by IDBI, Rs 423 crore was remitted out of India, the chargesheet said. “The said payments were shown to be made towards aircraft rental leasing and maintenance, servicing and spare parts,” it said.

“Vijay Mallya and others accused are guilty of money laundering under Section 3 and punishable under Section 4 of PMLA. Trial should be started against them and property attached (frozen) in the matter worth Rs 808 crore should be confiscated,” the chargesheet said in its concluding remark.

The total loan sanctioned by the IDBI bank to Kingfisher Airlines was Rs 860.92 crore. The loan amount rises to Rs 900 crore adding interest.

The ED has requested the court to confiscate Rs 808 crore worth of property of Mallya, which includes his farmhouse near Mumbai, UB City Mall in Bengaluru, his residential property in Mumbai and Bengaluru to recover the dues. The ED has already frozen Rs 9,680 crore of property belonging to Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines.

Vijay Mallya is in his safe haven in London after siphoning up over Rs 9,000 crore of loan taken from different banks in India over a period 11 years. Mallya owes loans to as many as 17 lenders, including the SBI, IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, United Bank of India, Central Bank, UCO Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Federal Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank and Axis Bank among others.

Opposition parties refuse to include AAP in meeting to discuss possible Presidential candidates

OpIndia Staff
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Opposition parties refuse to include AAP in meeting to discuss possible Presidential candidates

The date of the Presidential elections of India is coming closer and as a result, all the political parties are huddled in discussion mode to ascertain as to what should be their approach to these elections. The elections would be held on 17th July and the process would be completed by the 20th.

Even though the President of India doesn’t have any such direct powers, his signature is required to enact any bill into law. Generally the incumbent government tries to vote in a candidate who won’t create bad press by returning any bill or indulging in other, mostly symbolical, acts.

The President of India is elected via an electoral college where all the members who hold elected office (MPs and MLAs) cast the vote in favour of their candidates. Hence every political party in this case holds a direct influence over the elections as they can clearly instruct their members to vote in favour of a certain candidate.

In this election, the NDA has till now managed to secure about 48.6% of the possible votes and in order to reach a consensus has tried to reach out to even Sonia Gandhi and Sitaram Yechuri. NDA till date needs about 20,000 more electoral votes to secure the majority mark.

The opposition parties too are holding meetings in order to identify a suitable Presidential candidate whom they can support. Interestingly though, the opposition has reportedly decided to exclude the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from any sort of participation in those meetings.

According to the report, on Wednesday in one such meeting, Sitaram Yechury and Mamata Banerjee had moved a proposal to include the AAP in the discussions, but it was unceremoniously shot down by the Congress and the NCP.

Both Mamata and Yechury had also passed a similar resolution during their previous meeting but had met with the same result. The reason given for the apparent hostility was that a few members of the AAP had indulged in ‘objectionable’ behaviour.

The report claimed that the Congress members incidentally referred to the AAP as the B-team of the BJP as the party’s behaviour in Gujarat, Punjab and Goa had apparently hampered the path of the Congress.

A few though contradicted the Congress by claiming that the AAP wanted to win over the opposition in order to ‘dodge’ the BJP with which it already has strained relations. However, it was decided to keep AAP at bay for now.

While the incident reflects on blow-hot-blow-cold relationship between AAP and Congress, it is also a sign of how the opposition also seem to be struggling to get the upper hand in the Presidential elections.

Congress MLA caught on camera beating up farmers

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Congress MLA caught on camera beating up farmers

Abdul Sattar, the Congress MLA from the Sillod constituency of Maharashtra has stirred up a controversy after he was caught on camera abusing and thrashing farmers over an alleged land dispute:


According to reports the land which falls in the Sillod area, belongs to a man named Mukhtar whose 10 acre plot is adjacent to the MLAs’ farmlands. According to Mukhtar, the MLA reportedly wants to encroach upon it.

On 12th June when he was working in the lands, the MLA reached with his people, the police and started to assault and hurl obscenities at him. The MLA also allegedly threatened Mukhtar by claiming that he would be killed if he ever stepped on the his (MLA’s) land. Mukhtar has also alleged that the police is not taking any action owing to the pressure being exerted by the Congress MLA.

According to another report, the MLA had apparently assaulted not just Mukhtar but other farmers too who were working there.

The MLA though in his defence has claimed that the land actually belonged to a Dalit and that Muhtar and others were not handing it over to him hence he decided to take action. He also claimed that had he not intervened, the farmers were going to beat up the dalit. He also has called the whole episode as a BJP conspiracy.

No cases yet have been filed against the MLA even though according reports, the farmers had lodged a complaint against the MLA, his son Sameer and two others at the police station.

It remains to be seen as to what the response of the party high command is to the whole affair. Recently the Congress party has been actively participating in the alleged farmer protest going on at Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress Party including its leaders have been portraying that they deeply care for the farmers and the issues faced by them. Recently senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia had proclaimed that he would go to Mandsaur alone. He was later detained midway and was released a few hours later.

So it would be vital to note what action the party takes against its own MLA who was caught openly assaulting farmers.

Banks caught more fake currencies in 2015 than earlier

OpIndia Staff
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Banks caught more fake currencies in 2015 than earlier

Instances of counterfeit currency detection in Indian banking system have seen an abrupt escalation in the last eight years.

According to reports, data compiled by Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) shows that the number of counterfeit currency reports (CCRs) have been on the rise. While a mere 8,580 cases were detected in 2007-08, the year 2008-09 saw 35,730 cases, 1,27,781 cases were detected 2009-10, 2,51,448 cases reported in 2010-11, 2,51,448 cases detected in 2011-12, 3,27,382 cases in 2012-13  and 3,53,837 cases reported in 2014-15.

The FIU data, however, does not specify the amount of fake currency detected in these years. Counterfeit currency devalues the real worth of Indian currency and thus the detection is important. A study conducted by Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata on behalf of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) suggests that fake Indian currency notes (FICN) amounting to Rs 400 crore are in circulation in the country at any given point of time and around Rs 70 crore fake notes are pumped into Indian economy every year. The estimation is based on recovery and seizure made by various agencies. But the actual figure could be much larger.

Counterfeit currency reports (CCRs) are meant to check the extent of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) entering into the Indian banking system.

The FIU data indicates that around 90 per cent of the reports of counterfeit currency detection were filed by private Indian banks.

CCR is defined as the usage of a forged or counterfeit currency note or bank note as genuine or where any forgery of a valuable security or a document has taken place during a cash transaction at a bank.

“The private Indian banks contribute majority of CCRs. The compliance levels of the public sector banks continued to be low despite the matter having been taken up with the RBI,” the FICN report said.

Under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), all banks operating in the country – either public sector, private and foreign banks –are mandated to report instances of detection of fake currency to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). In 2007, the government had first mandated the FIU to receive such reports from the banks.

The FIU under the Union Finance Ministry acts as the national agency to provide financial intelligence to law enforcement agencies for safeguarding the economy from abuses of money laundering, terror financing and other offences. The FIU disseminates data and informations to investigative agencies time to time.

FIU, during 2014-15, had received a total of 58,646 suspicious transaction reports (STRs) from all types of banks, financial institutions like insurance companies, intermediaries like stock brokers, non-financial businesses and professions like casinos and private locker operators.

As per available data, the maximum STRs reported to the FIU were by banks as compared to any other financial intermediaries.

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