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NIA court pronounces 7-10 years' imprisonment for seven linked to fake currency smuggling syndicate

NIA court pronounces 7-10 years' imprisonment for seven linked to fake currency smuggling syndicate

Yekkirala Akshitha
March 6, 2026

A special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Visakhapatnam has convicted seven persons in connection with a 2015 fake currency smuggling case and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from seven to ten years, according to an official statement issued on Tuesday.

Investigators said the accused were part of a larger conspiracy involving the trafficking of high-quality Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) through the Indo-Bangladesh border . The counterfeit currency was later circulated in several parts of the country in an attempt to disrupt India’s financial security and destabilise the monetary system.

The case began in September 2015 when the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) intercepted a suspect at Visakhapatnam Railway Station. Officials seized counterfeit notes with a face value of ₹5,01,500 from the accused while he was travelling by train. The case was later taken over by the NIA in December 2015 as part of its efforts to dismantle organised counterfeit currency networks operating across states.

The convicts have been identified as Saddam Hossain, Roustum, Amirul Hoque, Mohammad Hakim Sheikh, Saddam Hussien, Sayed Imran and Mohammed Akber Ali. They hail from Assam, West Bengal and Karnataka.

Saddam Hossain of Barpeta district in Assam was sentenced to 10 years of simple imprisonment , along with a fine of ₹5,000. Amirul Hoque, also from Barpeta, received a similar sentence of ten years with a ₹5,000 fine.

Roustum of Malda district in West Bengal was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined ₹2,000, while Mohammad Hakim Sheikh received eight years’ imprisonment and a ₹5,000 fine. Saddam Hussein of Bengaluru was sentenced to seven years and fined ₹2,000.

Similar sentences were imposed on Sayed Imran of Mandya district in Karnataka and Mohammed Akber Ali of Kamrup district in Assam. The NIA filed its first chargesheet in July 2016, followed by supplementary chargesheets between 2018 and 2019.