Pakistan-printed currency notes testing Intelligence agencies

The intelligence agencies are on their toes to detect fake Indian currency notes(FICN) being printed and circulated by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) using the same special currency paper used by Reserve Bank of India.

The state intelligence wing and Intelligence Bureau(IB) suspect that the ISI might be acquiring the special currency paper from same agencies who supply it to India.

The special currency paper being used by the RBI for printing the currency notes are imported from Brazil. However, for the last several months, the fake notes detected in several parts of the country were found to be  made of the same material.

It has become difficult to detect fake   currencies as even the thickness and weight of paper weight are the same. “It has become hard for the agencies to detect the FICN as they are being made using the same paper. Earlier, we could  detect the fake notes by touch alone, owing to its poor paper quality. But now, we have to depend on the variation in print and metal bar to detect the originals. In case of fake notes, the bar will replaced by a pencil line and there are printing variations,” said a   state intelligence official.

The IB officials said that the Home Ministry will seek the assistance of the US security agencies to counter the ISI bid to destabilse  Indian economy by pumping in fake currency notes.

The Home Ministry will soon conduct discussions with the US agencies for sharing the techniques used in detecting the fake notes. The FBI has a successful mechanism in place to detect the fake currencies.