Target cattle markets: Counterfeit money trading gangs active

Syed Shemul Parvez  :
Various criminal gangs are active in spreading counterfeit money by targeting upcoming Eid -ul-Azha.
The campaign of selling fake money is being carried out publicly by opening various pages on social media platforms like Facebook.
Surprisingly home delivery is also offered. Animal markets are the main target of the gangs. However, law and order forces have found several such counterfeit money business circles before Eid.
They are also prepared to prevent fake money from spreading in animal markets. There are all kinds of security measures including fake money detection machines in the market.
According to intelligence sources, fake notes of lakhs of Taka have been released in the market targeting Eid-ul-Azha. More than half a hundred gangs are active in the capital to issue more notes. They are spreading fake notes from 100 taka to 1000 taka in the market.

Fake notes worth Tk 5 crore have been released in the market in the last two months. Ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, there was a plan to make two crore Tk worth of fake notes.
Fake notes worth taka 82 lakh have already been produced. But before those fake notes are released in the market, DB caught nine people including Babul, the kingpin of the gang. This year, the law and order forces have recovered about a quarter of a million fake Taka.
According to sources, members of these counterfeit gangs secretly set up fake money-making factories renting houses in different residential areas of the city. Fake notes are normally made there. They regularly change their addresses and locations for panic of being arrested.
In this regards, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Deputy Commissioner (media) Faruk Hossain said that these gangs become more active before different festivals including Eid. We have arrested many at different times, but unfortunately, they get out on bail and resume their misdeeds again.

However, we are working to prevent them and operations to arrest the members of such gangs are continuing, Faruk Hossain added.
RAB-3 Commanding Officer Lt Col Arif Mohiuddin said that counterfeit money makers used to open pages and create groups on the social media platform Facebook to sell fake money. Law enforcers found various pages like A-grade Jalnote, Taka Chai, Jalnote, Jal Taka Bikroy Kori, Jal Takar Dealer, Jal Taka Bikroy Kendra, and Real Sales and Taka Business.
Members of the gang used to contact the persons who commented on their posts and were interested in buying fake money. Later, they used to hand over the fake money meeting the persons physically, he said.

Earlier, Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked scheduled banks to set up booths in the cattle markets ahead of Eid-ul-Azha to detect fake or forged notes considering the huge cash transaction.
To this end, the central bank asked the commercial banks to assign dedicated officers as coordinators of respective banks and mail the designations and mobile phone numbers of the officers to Bangladesh Bank, as per a BB circular issued.

The scheduled banks have also been asked to coordinate with the branch offices of the central bank outside Dhaka to set up the booths.
Besides, sources from DNCC and DSCC said that counterfeit money detection machines will be installed in all the cattle markets in the capital to detect fake money. If anyone is in doubt then they can check the money.