SRINAGAR, Feb 19: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today searched the house of an Anantnag man who was behind the fake currency racket that was busted by Bihar Police last year.
The NIA team arrived at Damhall Khoshipora in Anantnag district early today and searched the house of Muzaffar Ahmad Wani alias Sarfaraz son of Gull Mohamad Wani. The NIA sleuths seized some documents from the house during the searches.
Wani was earlier arrested by Bihar Police in connection with FIR No. 229/2024 registered at Police Station East Champaran, Motihari.
The case involves multiple sections, including 317(4), 318(4), 61(2), 338, 337(3), 340(2), 111, 1178, 179, 180, 181, and 3/5 of the Bihar National Security (BNS) Act.
According to an investigation conducted by the Military Agency that led to the busting of the racket last year, Wani was managing operations from behind the scenes and coordinating with a Pakistani intelligence agency. His other accomplices were Mohammad Nazar Saddam of Bhagalpur, Mohammad Waris of Bhojpur and Zakir Hussain of Patna. Saddam at the time of arrest was found in possession of counterfeit currency valued at Rs 1.95 lakh.
Wani’s accomplices were arrested by the Bihar police during vehicle checking near Kharwa bridge in Banjariya area of Bihar on 5th September 2024. The police later arrested Wani from Anantnag.
Later NIA took over the case from Bihar police in December 2024 and are investigating this pan India fake currency racket.
The accused are part of a pan-India espionage and fake currency network and had smuggled Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) from Nepal to Jammu and Kashmir via Delhi on three occasions.
In the meantime, the NIA today said to have searched multiple locations in three states in connection with a 2024 case of seizure of high-quality Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs) in Bihar.
A statement issued by the NIA said that the extensive searches were conducted at 5 locations in Bihar and one each in Jammu and Kashmir and Telangana as part of the NIA investigations into a fake currency racket operated by accused and suspects from Nepal by using crypto currency.
It said that the agency teams today conducted searches at the premises of accused and suspects in Patna, Bhagalpur, Bhojpur and Motihari districts of Bihar, Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, and in Hyderabad, Telangana.
“Cash amounting to Rs 1,49,400, along with digital devices including pen drives, mobile phones, SIM cards etc., was seized during the searches. The team also recovered several incriminating documents,” it said.
