RBI in a tizzy over Pakistan's precision in faking notes

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s jihad machine, which has taken the proxy war to the Indian economy, has developed the capability to imitate Indian currency notes to a T. Seizure of fake notes to the face value of Rs 2.25 crore recently has proved this. And quite naturally, security agencies and the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) are fretting over it.

These notes have all the features that an authentic note has — watermarks, security threads, embossing and micro-printing among others. And officials say counterfeiters in Pakistan have achieved ‘zero-error counterfeiting capability’.

“These notes have features that are known to only a few experts. The appearance and texture of the notes match Indian currency notes,” DCP (Special Cell) Arun Kampani said.

While cops are probing how these notes landed in Delhi from Jammu, the government and the RBI are thinking of new ways to stay ahead of counterfeiters. Officials said the forgery was near perfect and took experts long hours to identify each note. They are now probing how Pakistan based counterfeiters got hold of such technology.

The seized notes have all the six basic security features of Indian currency notes: a) micro-printing , which is used by RBI to combat counterfeiting ; b) Gandhi watermark; c) security thread; d) 100% cotton paper; e) embossing by insertion of Intaglio images; and f) electro-yet watermark.

“These features were believed to be impossible to copy. But counterfeiters have busted this myth,” Kampani said.

Sources say Iqbal Kana, who smuggled the notes into India via Jammu, takes help of ISI and Laskhar to fund terror operations. He also has alternative routes via Nepal, Bangladesh and the sea. Kana also sends arms and ammunition through his agents in India and helps Lashkar’s sleeper cells.