Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has busted a ring producing counterfeit notes in the capital’s Mirpur and Bashundhara Residential Area on Monday, and arrested six people for their alleged involvement in making the counterfeit currency.
The arrested are Selim, Monir, Moin, Romiza Begum, Khadiza Begum, and Shahinur Islam.
In the raid, RAB also seized Tk4 crore in fake notes—mostly Tk1,000 bills. Around 4 million in fake Indian currency was also recovered.
RAB officials said the ring was manufacturing fake notes with Eid-ul-Azha ahead, and around Tk50 lakh in fake notes produced by them has already been circulated in the markets.
Major HM Parvez Arefin of RAB 2 identified Selim—involved in note forgery for several years and previously arrested in April, 2018—as the ringleader.
Selim resumed counterfeiting notes in a rented house in Mirpur following his release after seven months of imprisonment, the RAB officer added.
Monir, registered with Uber as a driver, was introduced to Selim a few months ago, and joined him in note forgery after that.
They used two laptops and four printers in the counterfeiting process. They would boil Tk100 bills to remove the colour, and then reprint them as Tk500 notes, said Parvez.
He said the ring was selling fake note bundles of Tk one lakh for Tk18,000 to dealers and fake rupees were sold to people planning to visit India.
The ring was using specific colours and watermarks to make their fake Tk1,000 bills indistinguishable from original ones.
Romiza and Khadiza were involved in putting watermarks and security threads on the forged notes in the Bashundhara Residential Area, while others supplied raw materials for the counterfeiting, said RAB.
It will be hard for people to differentiate original bills from the fake notes of around Tk50 lakh circulated in the capital’s markets, said Maj Parvez.
Law enforcement is still on the lookout for the dealers who circulated the fake bills.
