Iqbal Kana used to get fake Indian currency from a Pak army officer: Abdul Karim Tunda

NEW DELHI: Top Lashkar-e-Toiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda told his interrogators that Iqbal Kana, the biggest dealer of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), used to get the counterfeit currency notes from a Pakistani army officer and used his own network to push them into India.

Delhi Police officials said Kana was getting the FICN, which were being printed in Islamabad and Peshwar in Pakistan, from an ISI Brigadier.

Tunda told the interrogators that his work was to collect, disburse and push FICN through his network.

"Every time, the amount was having the face value worth crores," a senior Delhi Police official said.

Tunda, who was holding a Pakistani passport with the name Abdul Quddus, was arrested on Friday from an area on the Indo-Nepal border after being on the run in several countries for 19 years.

Investigators said the 70-year-old terrorist has told them that in 2012 Kana made extortion calls in the name of ISI to an Indo-Pak trade centre (a private association of merchants) in Lahore.

Somebody complained to ISI and the intelligence agency detained Kana and seized FICN worth Rs 93 crore from Tunda's premise.

The work resumed only after Kana apologised. Tunda, who was basically working as courier, also claimed he doesn't even remember how long it all was going.

He also told the investigators that there was no fixed amount he used to get from the ISI and no account was maintained but his daily needs were met.

He said he used to get whatever amount he used to demand. Sometimes, he used to get Rs four lakh, sometimes Rs 10 lakh and sometimes Rs 14 lakh, the official said.