New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court in Mumbai has convicted three accused and sentenced them to rigorous imprisonment (RI) in the 2020 Sahar fake currency case involving smuggling of high-quality counterfeit notes from Malaysia into India.

Danish Haji Mohammed Petiwala and Sarasvati Dattaram alias Muskan have been sentenced to five years, six months and two days of RI and a fine of Rs 6,000 each.

J Kaleel Rahman will undergo RI of five years, five months and 18 months along with a fine of Rs 5,000, as per the orders of the special court, which held all three guilty under various provisions of IPC and UA(P) Act.

The case emanated from information received by the Customs Department, Mumbai, regarding the import of a parcel from Malaysia containing Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs) of a total face value of Rs 68,000 (Rs 2,000 × 34 notes). The parcel was addressed to one Sangita Kapoor at her Goregaon (West), Mumbai, address.

Investigations revealed the involvement of Danish Haji, a resident of Mahim, Mumbai, and his girlfriend Sarasvati, along with a Malaysian resident, Amir Mirza alias Rafiq Shaikh, a wanted absconded against whom a non-bailable warrant was also issued in September 2020.

Customs officials also recovered one FICN from Hotel Adya International, Andheri East, where Danish and Sarasvati had stayed prior to their arrest.

After taking over the case, which exposed the use of banking channels and postal services to transfer FICNs in exchange for genuine currency, NIA found that Danish and Sarasvati had conspired with Amir and Kalil to smuggle high-quality counterfeit currency from Malaysia to India, with the intent of destabilising the latter’s financial system.

–IANS

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