Jaipur, Nov 26 – A special court run by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has handed a Pakistani national, Ran Singh, a decade of strict prison time for a 2019 bogus‑currency scam in Rajasthan. Singh also faces a ₹30 000 fine for his role in the raid that seized counterfeit Indian banknotes worth about ₹94 000.
The man was nabbed in May 2019 at the “Munnabao” land‑customs post, while his fellow conspirator, another Pakistani named Kunpji, is still at large.
In November 2019 the NIA filed formal charges against both. The Jaipur tribunal found Singh guilty under IPC sections 489B and 489C, and under Section 16 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. For each offence he was ordered to pay a ₹10 000 penalty in addition to the jail term. The arrest followed the discovery of 47 fake ₹2,000 notes in Singh’s luggage at the Munnabao railway station in Barmer district.
According to the investigators, Singh crossed into India from Pakistan via the Thar Express. They say he was enticed into smuggling false notes by Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI. When staff checked his bags, the concealed currency was identified and he was taken into custody.
“The man is from Pakistan and travelled on the Thar Express. We found 47 fake notes and subsequently detained and questioned him,” an NIA officer explained. He is said to live in Mithi, in Pakistan’s Sindh province. The agency is still hunting Kunpji.
This case echoes a wider pattern that Indian security forces have been monitoring: attempts by Pakistan‑based operatives to infiltrate India with FICN, destabilising the economy and funneling money into illicit schemes.
India’s leading counter‑terrorist agency, the NIA, has been a key player in dismantling FICN networks for over a decade. Established in 2009 after the Mumbai attacks, the NIA investigates crimes with national or cross‑border reach, including terrorism financing, smuggling, organized crime with security implications, and foreign‑linked networks.
The agency routinely works with state police, customs officials and international partners. In recent years, it has neutralised several sophisticated FICN smuggling operations that moved through Nepal, Bangladesh and the Pakistan border.
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