Two businessmen arrested for submitting fake currency at bank

KOLKATA: In the first such disclosure in the city, the police have arrested two leading businessmen of Lake Town’s Dakshindari – Lokenath Singh and Santosh Singh – for allegedly submitting fake currency at a public sector bank. Police sources said that the complaint against the two accused was lodged by the UCO bank authorities from their Ganesh Chandra Road branch at the Bowbazar police station.Police sources confirmed that they have recovered 24 fake currency notes of Rs 1000 denomination.
“We have arrested the two accused based on the complaint of the bank manager. A case has been registered against them under IPC section 489C (Possession of forged or counterfeit currency-notes or bank-notes) that can attract imprisonment for up to seven years,” said Akhilesh Chaturvedi, DC (central). Police sources said that the two accused – who introduced themselves as brothers – had wanted to deposit Rs 2 lakh at the branch. “The bank officials checked the notes in their machines and immediately alerted,” said an investigating officer. During questioning though, the two men claimed innocence saying they had received the money through ATM withdrawals or pay outs from third parties.
Bank officials said they had become extra careful after the Income Tax department has notified that all cash deposits of above Rs50, 000 in a day and all cash deposits that aggregate to more than Rs2.5 lakh during 9 November-31 December will require to quote the permanent account number (PAN). Also, banks will be required to quote all deposits exceeding Rs2.5 lakh in the annual information report sent to the tax department as against the current ceiling of Rs10 lakh. “There was some resistance on the part of the accused to part with the details,” a senior officer said.
Earlier, the RBI in its circular last Thursday had asked the public to subject notes to careful scrutiny. "Genuine Indian currency notes of higher denominations have strong counterfeit resistant security features. The fake notes can be identified on closer inspection. Members of public are requested to make it a habit of looking at the notes before accepting them in the usual course of daily transactions and help arrest the counterfeiting of Indian banknotes," said the RBI.