A joint taskforce of Bangladesh and India will tackle the smuggling of counterfeit currency in the two countries. The decision was taken at a three-day bilateral meeting that ended in New Delhi on Friday. The DIG (Crime) of the Bangladesh Police led the Bangladeshi delegation.
Additional secretary (Political) of home ministry Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed told media that the taskforce will discuss strategies to stop smuggling and circulation of fake notes. “Both the countries want to share information to arrest the smugglers,” he said. An officer in the Detective Branch said at least 10 major networks were involved in distributing counterfeits of various currencies, including the Euro, the Dollar and the Rupee, as well as the Bangladeshi Taka in denominations of Tk. 100, Tk. 500 and Tk. 1,000, reports The Independent.
In order to combat the menace, the central bank has asked all commercial bank branches in Bangladesh to install machines to identify counterfeits, he said. The police officer also said intelligence agencies have strengthened their vigilance across the country and they are applying new technologies and strategies to identify the network members.
A central bank official said several teams have seized huge quantities of counterfeit notes from a variety of financial institutions, including private bank branches and foreign exchange agencies, in the past few months.
Sources said the Rapid Action Battalion, National Security Intelligence and the Special Branch of police were are all in pursuit of the counterfeiters in an attempt to dismantle the distribution networks. The police headquarters has asked all SPs to form several units in their districts for better profiling of suspected counterfeiters.
