CIA busts gang of youth circulating counterfeit currency

Islamabad
The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) has busted a gang of youngsters, comprising boys and girls of local colleges and universities, involved in circulating counterfeit currency notes through purchase of different valuables by using a 'buy & sell' website.
The CIA has arrested a girl and two young men and recovered valuable mobile phone sets and fake currency notes from their possession, the CIA sources told this correspondent. They said that the remaining members of the nine-member gang, including two girls and four young men, are yet to be hunted down.
The Industrial Area Police have registered a case (FIR No. 299) against the gang under Section 489/B of the PPC on the complaint of Ammar Nawaz, one of the victims, after preliminary investigation by the CIA.
Ammar Nawaz, after being targeted by the gang, approached CIA Chief SP Captain (r) Ilyas and narrated the whole story. The CIA head took up the case and started investigation.
Ammar Nawaz told this correspondent that he put an advertisement on a 'buy and sell website', for selling his costly mobile phone set some days back. He said that he received a call the same evening from a female who expressed her interest in buying the mobile phone set. However, she asked him to show the mobile phone set and asked him to come to the Markaz I-8 as she was living near the suggested meeting point. Consequently, Ammar Nawaz reached the meeting point along with his friend Sheheryar where she was already waiting for him. He said that she was wearing a scarf but her face was not covered. She was looking around 25 to 27. She checked the mobile phone thoroughly and settled down its value at Rs48,000.
According to the complainant, she went into the ATM kiosk of a bank and came out in a couple of minutes with cash in her hand. He said that she handed over new Rs1,000 currency bills to him, but they were 47 when he counted them down. However, she gave another bill of Rs1,000 and disappeared from the scene with unidentified persons.
“The currency notes were so accurate that he could not even think that they could be counterfeit,” Ammar said and added the cashier of a bakery indicated that the note was fake when he gave him a Rs1,000 bill after buying confectioneries.
SP CIA Captain (r) Ilyas, confirming the occurrence when contacted by this correspondent, said that the gang members have been identified and teams have been sent to hunt them down. He said that the gangsters are very smart but left many clues enough to make headway to them. The girl was traced by the CIA through her mobile phone number which she used for contacting Ammar. The accused girl with two young men Suleman alias Mani and Malik Umair have been arrested.
The CIA sources told ‘The News’ that during nvestigation, the girl disclosed that other young girls are also part of the gang. She disclosed that Malik Umair was the chief of the gang and used to pay Rs6,000 to every member after every hit.
Sources said that most gang members were students and studying in different colleges and private universities of the town.
Malik Umair revealed during investigation that he used to fetch counterfeit currency notes from a fake currency notes dealer based in Peshawar, but he expressed his unawareness about the dealer’s links with international dealers. He said that he had fetched millions of fake currency notes from Peshawar. He disclosed that he sold all mobile phone sets at a shop in Singapore Plaza, Saddar, Rawalpindi.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) makes every effort against counterfeiting and limiting its impact on Pakistani banknotes and maintaining public confidence in Pakistani banknotes, the SBP sources said when contacted.
Sources said that the new series of the currency notes have a number of security features which are easy to check but difficult to copy or counterfeit.
According to the SBP sources, in counterfeit notes the watermark is made by using thick ink, painting with white solution, stamping a die or by applying oil. Grease or wax is used to give the transparent image of portrait of Quaid-i-Azam, sources said.
Sources said that security thread is embedded in the banknote paper. The counterfeit notes are imitated by drawing a line by pencil or printing a line with gray ink or by using a plastic thread or by pasting two thin sheets of paper, sources said and added that the thread appears a continuous dark line in Rs10, Rs50 and Rs100 old design notes. The word 'State Bank of Pakistan' may be checked in the thread of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes.
The words 'State Bank of Pakistan' along with 'denomination numeral' may be checked in the new design banknotes of Rs10 and Rs20, whereas this appears as silver dashes in Rs5,000 banknotes. The denomination '5000' may be checked and on viewing through ultraviolet light, yellow and blue fluorescent bands may be viewed, sources concluded.