NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) special court has sentenced a woman to six years of imprisonment in connection with Bengaluru fake currency case involving smuggling of huge quantities of high quality Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) from Bangladesh into India via Karnataka, the agency said on Saturday.
The woman accused, identified as Vanitha alias Thangam, was convicted by the NIA Special Court in Bengaluru on Friday. She has been sentenced to six years of imprisonment under Section 489B of Indian Penal Code (IPC), five years’ imprisonment under Section 489C of IPC, and two years’ jail under section 120B of IPC, besides a total fine of Rs 20,000, said the NIA. “The sentences will run concurrently,” the NIA added.
The Karnataka police had seized high quality FICNs of face value Rs 2,50,000 from Vanitha in the case, in which a joint operation by the state police and NIA had originally led to the seizure of fake notes of face value of Rs 4,34,000 from the possession of three accused persons.
The case was initially registered by Karnataka police under various sections of IPC based on the complaint of an NIA officer. The NIA had subsequently re-registered the case and mounted a thorough investigation and surveillance, which led to the exposure of the FICN racket headed by the prime accused, Abdul Khadir.
Further investigations by NIA had indicated a potential transaction of fake notes by three persons in Bengaluru. Between 2016 and 2022, the NIA filed chargesheets against a total of eight persons, of whom three accused, identified as Mohammed Sajjad Ali alias Chachu, M G Raju alias Master and Abdul Kadir were convicted by the special court.
The trio were sentenced to six years imprisonment under section 489B of IPC, five years imprisonment under Section 489C of IPC and two years of imprisonment under Section 120B of IPC, in addition to Rs 20,000 in fine.
Two other accused, Gangadhar Kholkar and Sabiruddin, were subsequently also convicted and sentenced by the NIA Special Court to six years’ imprisonment and fine of Rs 15,000 for offences under sections of Indian Penal Code-489B (using fake currency), 489C (possession of fake currency), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code. (ANI)