Lucknow, August 7
After recovery of fake currency notes from a State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Siddharth Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, counterfeit notes were found in a ICICI branch in Agra also, giving rise to fresh alarm as SBI put on alert all its branches across the state.

The state government today handed over to Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the police the probe into recovery of the fake notes of the face value of over Rs one crore at the SBI branch at Dumariyaganj.

Bringing to light that the problem was confined not just to SBI, fake currency notes of the face value of Rs 1,250 was recovered from ICICI Bank’s Sanjay Palace branch in Agra, UP additional director general of police (law and order) Brijlal said here.

An FIR was registered against the manager of the ICICI Bank’s branch following a complaint by the RBI.

“The FIR has been registered against ICICI Bank branch manager on a complaint by the RBI after recovery of fake currency worth Rs 1,250,” Brijlal said, adding that the FIR was lodged after a letter was written to SSP, Agra, by an RBI unit in Kanpur about the recovery of fake notes.

The interrogation of SBI Dumariyaganj branch cashier Sudhakar Tripathi, who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the fake currency racket, revealed that the fake notes were smuggled from Nepal to India, Brijlal said.

He added that Tripathi was today grilled by sleuths of the Special Task Force and local police. Tripathi, sources said, confessed to have mixed Rs 1.5 crore in the currency chest of the SBI branch where RBI officials were busy in sorting these notes.

“There are over Rs 184 crore cash in the bank and RBI officers are busy in counting the notes and verifying them,” a senior official said.

“The government has decided to hand over the probe (into recovery of fake currency notes in the SBI branch) to SIT as it is an specialised agency,” secretary (home) Mahesh Kumar Gupta said here.

The recovery of fake currency, that too from a bank, was stated to be the biggest in the country and several banks in districts bordering Nepal were said to be involved in the racket, official sources said.

“We have apprised the RBI about the racket on March 29 last year and asked them to check banks in districts bordering Nepal. However, it was not done,” the ADGP said, adding he had written a similar letter to RBI regional director, Lucknow, on July 30 last after which the fake notes were recovered from the SBI branch.

Asked about the possibility of handing over the probe to CBI as the fake currency racket involved several countries, Gupta said the decision would be taken when needed.

Meanwhile, SBI has put all its 1,350 branches in the state on alert asking them to be extra cautious.

SBI’s chief general manager Shiv Kumar said the incident said the fake currency has not got circulated among the public.

RBI’s regional director J B Bhoria said in Kanpur that Uttarakhand has around 500 currency chests that were being examined by the banking regulator at regular periods. He said it was the responsibility of the banks to regularly inspect their currency chests as it is not practically possible for the RBI to do so. — PTI