Flow of fake Indian currency notes from across the borders completely stopped, says Kiren Rijiju

New Delhi: The flow of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) from across the border with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal has completely stopped after the demonetization announcement, Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said on Friday.

This marks a major change as fake Indian currency notes with an estimated face value of Rs 70 crore is pumped into India every year and Rs 400 crore of such notes is known to be in circulation in the country at any given time, he added.

"Smuggling of fake Indian currency notes from three international borders -- Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal - has completely halted after the evening of November 8 (when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes)," Rijiju told reporters here.

According to him, intelligence reports reaching the government indicated that the proceeds from the illegal sale of drugs, opium, arms etc. have also been completely fizzled out, with hawala transactions being the worst hit.

"We are looking into any misuse of fake Indian currency pumped into India before the demonetization step was announced," said the MoS.

Fake Indian currency carrying a face value of Rs 12.35 crore was seized by the security agencies till June this year. In 2015, counterfeit note seizures totalled Rs 34.99 crore (face value), while in 2014, this figure was Rs 36.11 crore. In 2013, the face value of such seizures was Rs 42.90 crore.

Intelligence inputs estimate the terror funding in India to be in the range of Rs 700 crore to 800 crores, of which Rs 300-350 crore is used by Left-wing extremists, Rs 20 crore to Rs 30 crore by Kashmiri separatists and Rs 350 crore to Rs 400 crore by insurgents in the northeast.

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