The police said the notes, which had a face value of $3 million (around ₹25 crore), were similar to those used in "black dollar scams".
Saleman Sheikh with the fake US dollar bundles and the purported letter from the UN at his shanty. (Supplied)
Tohibul Islam, alias Bappa, is a frightened man: A group of men recently abducted him from his home in Bengaluru and threatened him with dire consequences.
So frightened is he that his friend and social activist R Kaleemullah had to approach the police to get an FIR registered in the case, which happened on Saturday, 11 November.
And all this because he helped a ragpicker submit to the police 23 bundles of notes with a face value of $3 million (around ₹25 crore) a few days before the attack.
That the notes turned out to be fake has added another dimension of mystery to the case, which has been unfolding since 1 November — the day of the state festival Kannada Rajyotsava.
That was when 36-year-old ragpicker Saleman Sheikh, a resident of the Bengali labour shanties in the Chiranjeevi Layout near Hebbal in Bengaluru, found what he thought was a discarded package on the railway tracks in Nagawara between Kanakanagara and Govindpura — his hunting ground for plastic waste.
“The package had two covers — a green cover and a black cover. I tore them open and saw that it was a bundle of currency notes, but it was not Indian notes,” Saleman, who makes around ₹200-300 per day by taking recyclable and other garbage to a segregation unit, told South First.
“There were 23 bundles of notes in total. I did not even know how much they were, but I realised it would run into crores, and I started feeling giddy,” added the native of West Bengal’s Nadia district.
Saleman somehow gathered his wits and returned straight to his house. He told his wife Lakshima Bibi Sheikh about his discovery and hid the money in the house.
Having so much foreign cash hidden in the house — he did not know its true value — gave Saleman so much anxiety that he could not eat or sleep for two days, his wife Lakshima Bibi told South First.
A couple of days later, Saleman contacted his labour contractor Touhibul Islam aka Bappa, who had just returned to the city.
A shocked Bappa told Saleman that the notes were US dollars and that he could not do anything with them in India except hand them over to the authorities.
Bappa then called up Kaleemullah, who works as the national executive member of Swaraj India — an organisation that works to protect the rights of migrant labourers and ragpickers. Kaleemullah assured Bappa that he would come the next morning and do what needed to be done.
On Sunday, 5 November, Kaleemullah reached Saleman’s shanty where Bappa was already present. “I went through the currency notes. It was $3 million — about ₹25 crore in value. The package also contained a letter on a United Nations letterhead. I told Saleman to inform the police and hand over the bundles of notes to them,” Kaleemullah told South First.
Kaleemullah immediately contacted Bengaluru City Commissioner of Police (CP) B Dayananda and informed him about the matter. “Though it was a Sunday, the CP asked us to bring the currency notes to his office immediately,” said Kaleemullah.
The activist and Saleman went to the CP’s office around 2.30 pm and narrated the entire incident to him. Dayananda examined the notes and determined them to be fake.
He called up the Hebbal Police Inspector Bhyra and instructed him to pursue the case. The commissioner also told Kaleemullah that the cops would send the notes to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ascertain their genuineness.
A police vehicle took Khaleemullah and Saleman to the Hebbal Police Station, where the inspector examined the currency notes and asked Saleman to file a formal complaint.
Bhyra then sent his officers to the location near the railway tracks in Nagawara and identified the buildings nearby. He then recorded the statements of Saleman, Bappa, and Khaleemullah.
The police officer then sent the notes to the RBI. The officer suspected that the fake notes were used in some “black dollar scam”, in which fraudsters use counterfeit currency to cheat people by exchanging them for genuine money. The fraudsters normally offer higher exchange rates, the officer said.
The letter found along with the bundle contained United Nations letterhead. However, while the real UN goes by just “United Nations” now, the letter said it was the “United Nations Organisation”.
The letter on UN letterhead. (Supplied)
“The UNO through its Economic and Finance Committee puts in place a special fund which was voted by members of the security council to assist UN peacekeeping forces in South Sudan,” the letter read.
“Due to the skeletal banking operations and the hijacking of such funds by unauthorized persons such as terrorists and dictators in these regions, the United Nations authorized the finance committee of the UN to place a visible laser stamp on the notes to act as security to have the funds to reach its destination safely. This safe contained standard laser stamped security bills TB 0.30-365H/UNSEC/07 AFC of $100 with the value of three million United States Dollars,” it added.
There was also a subhead: “Instructions for use”. It said: “These bills are anti-breeze and should not be exposed to air or atmospheric pressure. The materials used on these bills are highly toxic and thus it is recommended that hand gloves and masks are used before opening the safe.”
It added: “The chemical required for removal of the laser stamp is Fino-Bioxine Universal Solution Code (BDZ8Y56). There was also a warning that these notes are not a legal tender until the laser stamp has been removed from the bills and should not be accepted for any financial transactions or settlement of debts.”
A senior police officer said fraudsters provide such fake currency notes and ask the receivers (their victims) to clean them with chemicals, which is how a black dollar scam works.
People accept them because of the higher exchange rate and get duped. “We suspect residents of African nations are involved in this particular currency racket case,” the officer stated.
Meanwhile, the RBI on Thursday informed the police authorities that the currency notes were fake. They were either printed or photocopied, the RBI stated in its report.
The Hebbal police then registered an FIR under the Section 489A (counterfeiting currency notes or bank notes) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against unknown people and launched a probe.
And then things turned dangerous for Bappa. According to the FIR registered based on Kaleemullah’s complaint, the social activist awoke to several missed calls on Wednesday morning.
Kaleemullah told the police Bappa told him that five men arrived at Bappa’s house in a Toyota Innova car in the early hours of Wednesday, demanding that he hand over the money.
Bappa’s CCTV’s DVR Box vandalised by the gang. (Supplied)
When Bappa told them that he had deposited the bundles with the police, they allegedly abducted Bappa from there and took him to a different house, where they detained him for 45 minutes.
He was blindfolded when being taken, and the men allegedly took a red suitcase — which Bappa used on his most recent outstation trip — with them.
Kaleemullah said Bappa was tortured by the men, who kept demanding the dollars. They even broke open the suitcase, he said.
The gang then took Bappa and dropped him off near the Manyata Tech Park close to the Hilton Hotel. They warned Bappa of dire consequences if he reported the abduction to the police.
“They spoke in Kannada and in Hindi,” Khaleemullah later told the police. “Bappa has not lodged a police complaint fearing that the gang would harm him.”
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