Delhi Police seized fake currency with a face value of Rs 3.06 crore in the past five years but a recent single haul of counterfeit notes having a face value of crores of rupees is likely to take the recoveries this year to a new high.

City police's Special Cell seized fake currency with a face value of Rs 2.24 crore from south-west Delhi's Dabri on Thursday, arrested two persons and claimed it was part of an ISI strategy to destabilise the Indian economy.

Investigators have seized Rs 3.06 crore in the past five years in 210 cases and senior police officials say the seizure in Dabri is one of the biggest hauls.

Police believe that Pakistan's ISI is pumping in fake currency through various channels into India and some estimates say counterfeit notes with a face value of Rs 1,600 crore has already been circulated by the intelligence agency so far.

In the past five years, police have seized fake currency with a face value of Rs 3,06,36,790, $5,800 and €2,000 with 2007 topping the list with counterfeit notes with a face value of Rs 1.01 crore seized in 45 cases.

Last year saw the least recovery in the past five years with fake notes with a face value of Rs 28.20 lakh being recovered in 44 cases.

According to Delhi Police statistics, 2009 saw the second highest seizure with fake notes with a face value of Rs 88.39 lakh in 47 cases followed by 2008 (fake notes with a face value of Rs 59.19 lakh) and 2010 (fake notes of Rs 28.84 lakh in 33 cases).

An analysis shows that notes in the denomination of Rs 100 appear to be the favourite among counterfeiters as it is the most seized currency in the past five years.

Though 41,710 counterfeit notes of Rs 10 denomination were seized in 2010, police officials say it was an aberration and the Rs 100 denomination notes is the most counterfeited.

Police figures show that 34,606 fake notes of Rs 100 denomination, 28,536 notes of Rs 500 and 12,167 counterfeit notes of Rs 1,000 denomination were seized in the past five years.

For Rs 50 denomination, the number was 6,492, for Rs 20 it was 257, while not a single fake five rupee note was recovered during the same period.

Fake note suppliers in Delhi and other places used to buy fake notes at a rate of 50-60 per cent of the face value of the counterfeit notes and used to sell it for 70-80 per cent of the face value, the officials said.

“Seized counterfeit Indian currency notes have most of the security features of genuine currency notes and for a man on the street it would be difficult to spot the difference,” they said.

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