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Fake currency smuggled in on train from Pakistan

Onkar Singh and Josy Joseph in New Delhi

The Samjhauta Express, the transnational train between India and Pakistan, is a major carrier of fake Indian currency into the country, intelligence agencies have warned.

The government, however, has decided not to ban the biweekly crowded train. Instead, it stepped up security check at the border station of Attari.

The interrogation of some passengers who were arrested recently with a cache of fake currency revealed that they were not aware that the currency was not authentic.

In a couple of cases packets containing the currency, handed over to them in Pakistan, were passed over as a gift for some contact in India. They had no idea what these contained and only a vague idea of its final destination.

Such innocent couriers are becoming a common phenomenon on the Samjhauta Express, investigations reveal.

Union home ministry officials said the train "would not be terminated under any circumstance." But "precautionary steps to stop smuggling have been taken," a senior official told rediff.com.

The customs inspection at Attari on the Indian side, thus, has been tightened, and the government is considering proposals to upgrade the checking system.

The government has also put up multilingual boards at the station asking passengers to exchange their currency at Lahore before entering India. The board warns that carrying any Indian currency without the permission of the Reserve Bank of India while departing from or entering India is prohibited.

The authorised money changers at the station have also put up warning boards about fake currency.

In several cases, passengers to India were given the notes by money changers outside Lahore railway station, from where the Samjhauta Express begins its journey.

Last week authorities arrested one Wahid Ahmed, a resident of Delhi's trans-Yamuna area, with Rs 99,000, in Rs 500 notes. The Intelligence Bureau officials who questioned him said he was an unsuspecting courier.

Many have decried the reported move to stop the Samjhauta Express. Renowned writer Kushwant Singh said the train should not be stopped at any cost. Recollecting a journey he undertook with his wife, he said:

"The train has been there from the time I can remember. The need is to ensure better security check at the border rather than going in for a drastic step like stopping a historical train."

Former foreign minister R L Bhatia too was of the same opinion. He said the train was symbolic of growing people to people contact and that is why it has been named Samjhauta Express. The termination of the service would cause immense difficulties to passengers who cannot afford to fly, the veteran Congress leader said.

Fake currency smuggling, Bhatia said, was nothing new. "It has been going on for over five years but then it was on a smaller scale. Now the Pakistani government is encouraging youngsters to carry fake currency to India in large amounts."

The need is to step up "our own vigilance system, rather than stop the train. There is no train between India and Pakistan plying via Rajasthan, but reports have come in of fake currency being smuggled into India through that border as well," he added.

If the government stops the Samjhauta Express, it would affect many. Members of minority religions, especially Sikhs, who are fleeing Afghanistan, enter India on the Samjhauta Express. Many such families have reached India recently. Quite a few have their children married into Indian families. They are hoping to get their visa term extended whenever possible.

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