Police crackdown in Malda on fake currency smugglers
The Statesman | 10 May 2025
With crimes steadily on the rise in Malda district, a sensitive region close to the Indo-Bangladesh border, law enforcement agencies, including the police and Special Task Force (STF), continue to tighten the net around illegal networks operating in the area.
In two major back-to-back operations on Wednesday night, authorities seized nearly Rs 4 lakh in counterfeit currency and apprehended an arms trafficker carrying a cache of illegal firearms.
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In the first operation, police in Baishnabnagar arrested a 19-year-old suspected currency trafficker and recovered counterfeit notes amounting to Rs 3,92,500 — all in Rs 500 denominations. The accused, identified as Sintu Sheikh alias Sahud Sheikh, is a resident of Babupara in Par Dewanapur area. He was detained after police received a tip-off and found him moving suspiciously in an area.
Police are now investigating the source of the fake notes and the intended destination for trafficking. A wider probe is underway to identify others linked to the racket. Sintu Sheikh was produced before the Malda District Court on Thursday, where police sought custody for further questioning.
In a separate but nearly simultaneous operation, the STF intercepted Sanjit Kumar, a suspected arms trafficker from Bihar’s Bhagalpur district, in the PTS More area under the same Baishnabnagar police jurisdiction. A search of his belongings led to the recovery of eight illegal firearms — all pipe guns.
Preliminary investigations suggest that Kumar had smuggled the weapons from Bihar for delivery in Malda. However, the operation was foiled before the handover could occur. The STF later handed him over to Baishnabnagar police for further investigation. On Thursday, he was presented in court, where police requested 10 days of custody to pursue leads on the broader arms smuggling network.
Authorities say these coordinated actions are part of ongoing efforts to crack down on the criminal networks thriving along the international border.