Kathmandu: Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is bribing Nepalese officials to facilitate its fake Indian currency racket in Kathmandu, Nepalese politicians allege.
Gangster Dawood Ibrahim, who is believed to be living in Pakistan and is India’s most wanted criminal, is helping the ISI in running the money racket. “Politicians and policemen are involved in fake currency. Otherwise how else can so much fake currency come in through Kathmandu. The fake money business is thriving in Nepal,” says Babban Singh, a member of Nepal’s Constituent Assembly.
Nepalese law enforcement officials gave CNN-IBN photographs of ISI operatives in Nepal who are instrumental in manufacturing fake Indian money.
Sheikh Jikar Ullah, who works for Dawood, is an ISI-backed fake currency dealer in Kathmandu. Lal Mohammad, another Dawood man, is used by the ISI to ferry fake currency from Bangladesh and Thailand to Nepal by air.
Intelligence officials say their third top suspect is Lal Mohammad, who is linked to terrorist group Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami’s chief Mufti Abdul Hannan.
The hub of ISI’s fake currency operations is in Birganj, a Nepalese town near the Indian border.
ISI operatives in Kathmandu get Rs 500 for every fake Rs 1,000 note they pass on. Dealers in Birganj pay couriers Rs 500 for every consignment of fake money amounting to Rs one lakh that they carry into India. Buyers in India pay Rs 700 for Rs 1,000 of fake currency.
India’s National Security Advisor M K Narayanan says fake money racket is used to finance terrorism. “From the point of view of financial establishment the percent of fake Indian currency is not even a speck in terms of numbers. From the point of view of security establishment, I think it is a matter of concern because then it is used for purposes which are anti national,” says Narayanan.
The Indian government acknowledges that fake currency is a grave threat, but it is unclear what it has asked Nepal to do to stop the racket.
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