OMJASVIN M D By Express News Service CHENNAI: In November 2016, all high-value currency was demonetised with one of the objectives being curbing fake currency. However, just in the next year itself, around 3.55 lakh fake currency notes amounting to Rs 28 crore, including the new Rs 2,000 notes, were seized in the country. Gujarat topped the list in terms of value with 80,519 notes amounting to Rs 9 crore being seized, according to the new NCRB data. Delhi topped in denominations with 1.08 lakh notes amounting to Rs 6.78 crore seized. Around 30,658 of Rs 2000 notes were seized from Gujarat, almost half of India’s total seizure of 74,898. While the fake 100-rupee notes seized in the country were 92,778, the new 500-rupee notes were just 8879. Recently, in an RTI reply, the RBI has said it had stopped printing Rs 2000 notes in the current financial year. This comes in the wake of the National Investigation Agency’s finding that high quality fake currency of Rs 2000 denomination was in circulation. An RTI reply too revealed that the RBI had printed 3,542.991 million notes in the financial year 2016-17, which came down to 111.507 million notes in 2017-18 and was further reduced to 46.690 million notes in the year 2018-19. Currency notes seized in 2017 is almost double the amount seized in 2016, during which, 2.81 lakh notes amounting to 15.92 crore, were seized. In 2017, 978 FIRs were filed and there were 1046 convictions, lesser than 2016, where 1172 FIRs were filed and 1107 people booked. Despite topping the fake currency lists, the number of FIRs filed in Gujarat and Delhi, are 71 and 53 respectively, lower than Uttar Pradesh (181), West Bengal (146), and Maharastra (75). The amount seized from Tamil Nadu was Rs 46 lakh, UP (Rs 2.86 crore), West Bengal (Rs 1.93 crore), Kerala (Rs 1.30 crore) and Andhra Pradesh (Rs 1.21 crore). The north-eastern states and some UTs recorded zero seizures, according to the data. The highest number of accused booked were in WB (189), Gujarat (90), UP (87) and Assam (86).

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