Counterfeit foreign currency rackets

Is Sri Lanka becoming a safe haven for counterfeit foreign currency racketeers? The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) cracked opened one of the biggest counterfeit foreign currency rackets in Sri Lanka following the arrest of six persons including a woman last week. The suspects were taken before courts and remanded pending completion of investigations.

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sleuths probing into the forged Indian currency notes discovered at a house in Mattakuliya is on the trail of several persons who have absconded. The racket was discovered when a team of CID sleuths raided a house at Mattakuliya and found several gunny bags containing fake Indian currency notes. Six persons were arrested following the detection of fake Indian notes, a CID spokesman told the Sunday Observer.

Drama in Wellawatte

The drama unfolded on 9th December around 4.00 p.m. at Wellawatte when two men walked into a Euro Lanka Money Changers, an authorised shop dealing in foreign currency, situated at the Galle road, with a bundle of Indian currency notes.

They walked up to the cashier and told him that they have some Indian currency notes to be cashed. Thereafter one of the men dipped his hand in to his trouser pocket and pulled out a bundle of notes and gave it to the cashier. There were 75 Indian currency notes in the denominations of Rs 500.

The cashier became suspicious as both men were strangers and were not their usual clientele. The men too appeared to be in an exited mood. To allay fears, the cashier demanded their identity cards. One man then handed over his National Identity Card to the cashier.

The cashier then carefully inspected the notes. He was shocked beyond words to discover that they were fake. As if making a business call, the cashier telephoned the Wellawatte police and informed them about the fake notes.

The two men however became suspicious about the telephone call and fled leaving the National Identity Card (NIC) behind. When Police arrived at the money changing centre, the cashier handed over the fake notes along with the National Identity Card (NIC) left behind by one man.

As it was a case involving forged currency notes, the Wellawatte police handed over the case to the Counterfeit Bureau of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for further investigations. The sleuths traced a man named Nalin Indika from Dehiwela who had left behind his National Identity Card (NIC) at the "Euro Lanka Money Changers." centre.

When Nalin Indika was questioned as to how he came to possess the fake notes, he said that Sarath Wickremasinghe who accompanied him to the Euro Lanka Money Changers had given him the fake notes. The sleuths traced a mason named Sarath Wickremasinghe at his residence at Dehiwela.

Nalin Indika had revealed where he lived. Later when Wickremasinghe was questioned he told detectives that he pilfered a bundle of counterfeit notes while working as a mason at a newly built house at Mattakuliya. He told the fake notes were in gunny bags which the landlord had hidden in a room.

A team of CID detectives raided the house at Mattakuliya and found large amounts of forged currency notes in five gunny bags. There were 15,900 fake Indian currency notes of the denomination of Rs.1000 and 21,400 fake notes of the denomination of Rs 500. The notes were crisply packed in 100 bundles ready to be despatched to some destination.

Further inquiries revealed that one Malik, a businessman owned the partly constructed house at Mattakuliya. Three weeks ago Malik's mother had brought the forged currency notes in five gunny bags to the house in a three-wheeler. She told Sarath Wickremasinghe the mason, the goods inside the five gunny bags had belonged to her son Malik, and to look after them. Thereafter the bags were placed in a corner of a room and camouflaged with clothes.

However Wickremasinghe was suspicions about the merchandise from the time it was brought to the house. He was curious to know what the bags contained.

Mysterious merchandise

So somewhere on December 9, when the inmates of the house were away he surreptitiously tip- toed into the room and untied a gunny bag. Wickremasinghe could not believe his own eyes when he found Indian currency notes inside the gunny bag. He then removed a bundle of Indian currency notes and telephoned his former assistant Nalin Indika to meet him at Wellawatte.

He told him there was something important to be discussed. So when Wickremasinghe met Nalin Indika near the Roxy theatre, at Wellawatte he told him about the Indian currency notes. He sought Nalin's help to encash it. After Nalin agreed to do this they decided to encash it at Euro Lanka Money Changers.

Subsequently Malik was arrested together with an Indian national named Sammy Dorai by the CID. Malik told CID that the notes in question were given to him by an Indian national named Mohideen who promised him Rs 500,000 for keeping the notes. Mohideen is from Kerala India, who had been a frequent visitor to Sri Lanka. He had been purchasing duty free items.

Since Malik was down with fever for two weeks and was hospitalised, Samy Dorai was sent to Sri Lanka to check on Malik. Meanwhile Samy Dorai told the CID that he was sent to Sri Lanka by Mohideen to check on Malik since Mohideen failed to contact Malik over the phone. Dorai however denies any knowledge of the counterfeit notes.

Meanwhile the CID probe will reveal details about the on going Indian counterfeit currency racket. More suspects are to be questioned in this connection.

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