Kolkata, April 28 (IANS) Two persons were arrested in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, along with a consignment of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) of face value of Rs 16 lakh, on Monday, police said.

The two persons, arrested from from Samserganj area, have been identified as Alamin Sheikh, 20, and M Sheikh, 21. Both are residents of the Baishnabnagar area in the adjacent Malda district.

All the notes seized from them were of the Rs 500 denomination. Sources from the district police said that the duo was nabbed while they were transporting the FICN consignment from Malda to Murshidabad.

On the basis of specific information, police raided a particular place at Dhulian Ghat at Samserganj and arrested the duo along with the consignment. Both were present at a district court at Jangipur in Murshidabad district on Monday afternoon only and it accepted the plea of the public prosecutor for seven days’ police custody.

Police have started an investigation into where they sourced that FICN consignment and where the actual destination of that consignment was. The investigating officials suspect that a major cross-border FICN racket is involved in the matter, considering the quantity of fake currency seized.

The investigating cops are also not ruling out the involvement of operators from neighbouring Bangladesh, which borders both the Murshidabad and Malda districts.

In fact, because of the proximity to the international borders, the names of Malda and Murshidabad have surfaced several times during the last couple of years over the seizure of FICN consignments. Most of the arrested persons in those cases were either residents of Malda or Murshidabad.

Samserganj was one of the most badly hit pockets in Murshidabad district because of the communal violence and riot-like situations earlier this month, after protests over the Waqf (Amendment) Act turned violent. Hargobindo Das and Chandan Das, the father and the son who were killed in the communal violence, were residents of Samserganj.

–IANS

src/vd