While the poor stood in long queues and struggled to withdraw their hard earned money post the demonetisation of high value currency notes in November 2016, which had allegedly resulted in over 100 deaths, the circulation of fake notes in India continued unabated even as demonetisation and its effects quickly vanished from national discourse.?
According to the data that has been assembled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Indian authorities seized fake currency notes worth Rs 28.1 crore in 2017. While this may be a not-so-high figure compared to the cases of bank scams and corruption that have been surfacing at an alarming rate over the past two years, it is almost double of the fake notes seized a year before.
In other words, Indian authorities had seized a total of Rs 15.9 crore of fake notes in 2016 while this mark reached Rs 28.1 crore in the following year.?
Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the centre had demonetised high value currency notes on November 8, 2016 and among many of its objectives, curbing the spread of fake notes was described as one of the prominent.?
The statistics, however, point to a completely contrary scenario, wherein the circulation of fake notes rapidly climbed after demonetisation , which led the authorities to seize almost double the figure before it.?
Picture for representation/Reuters
The new currency notes were described as nearly impossible to replicate and were said to be embedded with additional security figures.?
Again contrary to all claims, nearly half of the seized fake notes were in Rs 2,000 dominations, which were only introduced after old currency notes were banned in November 2016.?
Of the Rs 28.1 crore fake notes seized in 2017, as much as fake notes worth Rs 14.98 crore was accounted for by Rs 2000 notes.?
Further, if the statistics are to be considered on state-to-state basis, Gujarat topped this notorious list where fake notes worth over Rs 9 crore was seized. Delhi, with Rs 6.7 crore seized in fake notes grabbed the second spot, followed by Uttar Pradesh, where fake notes caught was at Rs 2.8 crore.?