Ahmedabad, Dec 1 (PTI) A special NIA court here has convicted two accused in a Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) case and sentenced them to seven years of rigorous imprisonment, an official said on Thursday. Vinod Nishad alias "Vinod Sahni" alias "Binod Kumar" of Bihar and Mehfooz Shaikh of Gujarat were convicted by the special court on Wednesday in the Surat counterfeit currency case registered in 2019, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) spokesperson said. "Both the accused were convicted under sections 489B, 489C and 120B of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for seven years and slapped with fine," the spokesperson said. The official said the case was initially registered by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Regional Unit Surat, on credible inputs that Nishad, a resident of Muzaffarpur, was arriving at Surat from Bihar by train to deliver Indian counterfeit notes in 2019. Both Nishad and Shaikh were arrested by the DRI on June 5. The NIA took over the case on July 20 in 2019 and filed a charge sheet against the accused for possessing and circulating fake Indian currency having a face value of Rs 2 lakh on August 31 in the same year. "The investigations revealed that the accused are habitual criminals. They brought fake currency notes to Surat for the purpose of circulating them to damage the robust monetary system of India. "The NIA proved the criminal conspiracy by presenting 13 prosecution witnesses before the special court, Ahmedabad," the spokesperson said. PTI SKL CK