Circulation of counterfeit notes of different denominations has gone up in Chittagong as miscreants are deceiving people who are in a shopping frenzy ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
Law enforcers have recovered several hauls of fake notes but a large number of phoney note dealers are operating in the port city, said police sources.
On Saturday night, police nabbed two people, Masud, 22, and Morshed, 25, from a house in Anondipur area with 332 fake notes, in Tk500 denominations, said Syed Abu Mohammad Shahjahan Kabir, officer-in-charge of Halishahar police station.
He said the two were attempting to make transactions with the counterfeit money and were members of a syndicate involved in this practice.
A case was lodged with Halishahar police station and police are trying to nab the other members of the ring, Kabir said.
On July 10, police detained Abu Taher alias Alamgir, 38, with 38 counterfeit notes, in Tk500 denominations, from East Madarbari road and the arrested confessed that he had attempted to use the notes, hoping the busy shoppers would not notice.
According to the arrested, they mainly trade notes of Tk100, Tk500 and Tk1,000 with people who are on an Eid shopping spree, and the fake notes are circulated in three steps.
The first group produces the counterfeit notes and hand those over to the second group. The second group distributes the notes to members of the third group who are engaged in transactions with people.
Police are usually able to capture miscreants belonging to the third group but the phoney note producers and the distributors remain at large, said police sources.
“The third-level dealers have no direct connection with those operating in the first level, which is why they cannot give any concrete information about who is actually producing the notes,” said Kushum Dewan, deputy commissioner of Detective Branch of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP).
He, however, said police had received some important information about the counterfeit note producers and would immediately begin operations to detain them.
Those who produce fake notes use cutting-edge technology, making it difficult for even Bangladesh Bank’s money checking devices to detect those, said Additional Commissioner (crime and operation) of CMP Banaz Kumar Majumder.
Such notes are even found in ATM booths of different banks, he said, adding that people should be cautious while making transactions.
According to administrative sources, there is a fake note prevention committee in every district led by respective deputy commissioners and the committee is supposed to hold a meeting every month.
The committee in Chittagong district is not working effectively, said sources.
Requesting anonymity, a top official of Bangladesh Bank told the Dhaka Tribune that miscreants were circulating phoney notes at an alarming rate during Ramadan because of the lax measures of the surveillance bodies.
“The Central Bank has been trying to raise awareness among people by publishing posters displaying the differences between counterfeit and genuine notes,” he added.