Guess who's crying raw deal? The 'Dealer'

TT, Malda, Nov. 14: Sintu Sheikh has a well-circulated middle name in his village in Malda - he is the "Dealer". It is the currency notes that he used to flaunt which are not circulating now.

Sintu, 55, stays in Mohabbatpur village in Kaliachak, 42km from Malda town. Mohabbatpur, according to police and BSF sources, is one of about 10 villages in Kaliachak and Baishnabnagar that border Bangladesh and are havens for fake currency racketeers.

Sintu has been questioned by the NIA thrice on the suspicion of circulating fake currency, but never arrested. One of the reasons why the NIA set up an office in Malda was to track the fake currency traffic from Bangladesh.

Anyway, back to Sintu, who conceded that life had become tough suddenly after November 8 when the demonetisations drive was announced. But when he was asked what he did for a living, he said he sold the stuff that the BSF auctioned.

Why was he called the "Dealer"? According to Sintu, he was "a middleman dealing in items auctioned by the BSF", hence the "Dealer".

Why had the NIA questioned him thrice? "They called, so what can I do? I have nothing to do with fake currency," Sintu clarified.

In Mohabbatpur, though, he obviously is among the few wealthy residents. He owns seven bighas of land and a 2,000sqft house that has a TV, a refrigerator and an almirah. In a village where many houses are of mud, Sintu's is of concrete. His children study medicine and engineering in private colleges in south Bengal.

Sintu complained he would be hard up for cash to pay his children's expenses and run the home, if the situation did not ease up soon.

The "dealer" in a fake currency chain is the person who keeps all the notes, disburses them among carriers and controls the supply of fakes from Bangladesh where they are printed.

"I hardly transact in 100-rupee notes. In my business, we receive payments in Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes from buyers. I have no idea how to get these notes changed. I have with me only a few 100 rupees," he said.

He stressed that in Mohabbatpur, there were no counterfeit currency operators. "Fake note racketeers operate in other villages, not here," he said.

The village dotted with huts mostly has below-poverty-line families. Sintu's home stands out among them.

On the India-Bangladesh border there are other villages too where fake currency is brought in from Bangladesh and pushed into the Indian market. Mohonpur, Chari-Anantapur, Daulatpur, Sukdebput, Sabdalpur and Sobhapur are some of them.

That Sintu and his sort are in a tight spot is being relished as a joke among a section of villagers.

When this correspondent was speaking to some residents of Mohabbatpur, 35-year-old Jamal Sheikh stopped his motorbike loaded with vegetables. He felt tempted to know what the small knot of villagers was up to.

" Ei 500 takar note ta bajare nilona. Dhare shobji kine anlam. Ei bhabe kotodin cholbo (No one in the market took this 500-rupee note. I had to buy vegetables on credit. How long will this go on)?" he asked in annoyance, waving a 500-rupee note at a huddle of mostly poor villagers.

What did he do for a living, he was asked. " Tuk-tak byabsa kori (I run a small business)," he said and sped off.

The villagers laughed after he left. "Their problem is obvious," one of them said. "We are travelling several kilometres to get our cash exchanged. What will they do? Now even the original notes are of no use. There is no one to take theirs," he said.

A senior BSF officer, when asked how demonetisation had affected the fake currency cross-border racket, said the supply chain seemed to have broken for now. "The chain of people sitting on the other side of the fence, the dealers who store the notes, carriers who earn a small percentage for taking the risk of carrying the fake notes, has disintegrated," he said. "The carriers have their commissions due while the dealers are sitting on fake cash that has no takers."

"Cattle smuggling has also halted as people used to get fake notes by selling cows," he said.

In villages near the border, small businesses and local markets have taken a hit.

"I used to sell groceries worth Rs 1,200-1,500 every day. Over the past few days, the sale has come down to Rs 300. Several people who used to tear from bundles of notes and pay me are asking for credit," Aswini Singha, a shopowner in Mohabbatpur, said.

Tazmul Haque, who runs a garment shop in the same village, has also not found any of his "regular local customers making big purchases".

Local people said those involved in the currency racket never made payments in counterfeit notes at local shops because then they would be vulnerable to being tracked down by law enforcement. "Local people or police and other agencies do not get suspicious of them quickly if they don't pay in fakes. But the sudden reduction in the scale of trade at these local shops indicates that sources of earning of a section of people has dried up," Masuda Bibi, the pradhan of Chari-Anantapur panchayat, said.

There are also reports, she said, that a section of people, mostly carriers and others working in these rackets, have headed to other states for jobs.

Malda, which was known for its juicy mangoes, has earned the infamy of being one of the key corridors through which fake currencies enter India.

"Bundles of notes are thrown from both sides of the border. The cut money is 40 per cent, meaning, to get a fake note of 1,000 rupees, an individual needs to pay Rs 600 in real notes," a police source said.

Police and BSF officers said they still need to be vigilant. "It is true that such rackets have stopped functioning now. But to prevent smuggling of any other contraband, we are on alert on the borders and across the district," a police officer said. "These rackets have connections with different outfits and agencies which function outside our country. This sudden jolt has naturally affected their interests. We are not ready to take any chances."