Representative image of a gavel.
Credit: iStock Photo
A special court in Bihar has convicted a man in the 2015 East Champaran fake currency case, a spokesperson of the National Investigation Agency said on Wednesday.
Munna Singh (46) pleaded guilty before the Special NIA Court, Patna, to charges filed against him under the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the spokesperson said. He is the sixth accused to be convicted in the case.
The official said the sentence against him will be pronounced by the court on September 11.
The case was originally registered on September 19, 2015, and taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on December 23 that year. Since then, the agency has charge-sheeted eight accused, of whom five were convicted earlier.
Ten people were accused to be involved in the case which relates to the seizure of high-quality Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs) of face value of Rs 5.94 lakh from Afroz Ansari.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had apprehended him near Ramgarhwa in East Champaran district's Motihari. He was found to be carrying the consignment of fake currency notes to Raxaul near the Indo-Nepal border for further delivery in Nepal, the spokesperson said. The eight arrested accused were charge-sheeted by the NIA between 2016 and 2023.
Four of them -- Ansari, Sunny Kumar alias 'Sunny Shaw' alias 'Sujit Kumar' alias 'Kabir Khan', Ashraful Alam alias 'Ishraful Alam' and Alomgir Seikh alias 'Raju' -- were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 30,000 by the special court in October 2018.
Another accused, Raisuddin, was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 5,000 last month.