Sunday | 12 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Sunday | 12 January 2025 | Epaper

Counterfeit money: Caution is essential

Published : Friday, 16 July, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 900
Md Azgar Ali
With the advancement of human civilization, people used to meet their various needs by exchanging goods before the introduction of money. Due to various difficulties in the barter system, currency was invented and circulated as an easy medium of exchange. In fact, the history of currency counterfeiting is very old and nothing new at present. This crime is believed to have started 2700 years ago after the acceptance of money was made compulsory by law, i.e. after the transaction was recognized as a money laundering currency.

Where and when the money laundering activities started in this world has no accurate historical documents till date. Counterfeit currency was introduced in Greece within 100 years of the introduction of the coin 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. However, after the introduction of paper money in the 1650s, it became widespread in the Western world, especially in the United States, where counterfeit money was considered more widely available than real money. The history of paper currency counterfeiting and whatever it is, counterfeit money completely hinders the country's economy. The history of currency counterfeiting, however, has crippled the country's economy and its free flow has led to market inflation, emptying the pockets of the general public and, above all, discrediting the country's central bank and other scheduled banks.

Considering the harmful aspects of counterfeit money, it has been possible to control it by enacting and enforcing strict laws in different countries of the world. The image of currency counterfeiting in Bangladesh is long overdue. Looking at the national dailies published in the last few days, it has become very clear that the black hand of the money counterfeiting ring is on.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DB) arrested five people in a raid on a factory in the capital's Badda. During the raid, notes worth Tks 43 lakh, and a huge amount of counterfeit money-making materials were seized from the factory. They used to print crores of counterfeit money every month and release it in the market. Abdur Rahim Sheikh and his wife Fatema Begum started a factory for making counterfeit notes at home. They were running this factory with some friends. The arrestees had long been selling counterfeit money in retail and wholesale. They used to sell 1 lakh taka for 14-16 thousand takas.

However, their activities have increased due to Eid. For the last three years, they have released a large number of counterfeit notes from the market before Eid and other festivals. Fatima Begum was arrested along with another accomplice in 2019 while making counterfeit money at a house in Hatirjheel area. It is to be noted that they have been arrested several times before for being involved in drug trafficking in addition to counterfeit money.

It is known that new counterfeit money can be run in the market more easily than the old counterfeit money. Because the demand for new money is higher than the old money, both buyers and sellers are busy in the currency exchange market, so there is no need to face any difficulty. As a result, counterfeit money can be sent in the fastest time. The arrested gang has been making and trading counterfeit money for a long time. They have even been jailed and released on bail with a temporary break and re-engaged in the same crime.

Syndicates of counterfeit money use various methods to market their counterfeit money. They have different target groups. This target group includes some unscrupulous bank employees and money changers involved in transactions in the currency exchange market. Those who are behind the scenes are leaving counterfeit money in the market as an opportunity out of complete reach. Soon after the government released new notes of various brands, the members of the counterfeiting ring became quite active in counterfeiting money. This is because the new notes introduced in the market are chosen by the counterfeiting cycle as an advantage before they become known to the public.

Moreover, in the face of various festivals and crises, efforts to transact counterfeit money continue. The activities of the criminal gangs in making counterfeit money are as noticeable as the activities of the law enforcement agencies of the country against them. As a result of relentless efforts and operations of the law enforcement agencies, fraudsters have been arrested. Appropriate measures need to be taken to ensure that the fraudsters, who have been caught red-handed in the recent past with the help of law enforcement agencies, do not come out in the loopholes of the law.

However, in many countries of the world, the leaders of money counterfeiter's cycle have been brought under the law and cracked down on, and in particular, the security of the state and the citizens has been provided by the death penalty. It is a matter of concern that some criminal gangs are engaged in making counterfeit money for the sake of technology and it is the sacred duty of every citizen of the country to remedy it. Request to the law enforcement agencies is to move ahead in the work of correction of national deposits with a special focus. Not just the Eid market, we expect that market for every transaction be free from counterfeit money.
The writer is a researcher and columnist






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