Separate law needed to deal with culprits
The central committee for resisting counterfeit currency in circulation urged the government for enacting a separate law for swift disposal of huge number of pending cases related to currency forgery and ensure proper punishment to the forgers. Members of the body while talking to The New Nation yesterday highlighted various weaknesses of the present law saying that the law is not enough to deal with the cases of currency forgery and ensure their speedy trial.
“Prevention of currency forgery remains a big challenge for them as there are so many loopholes in the existing law,” said Dasgupta Asim Kumar, a key member of the core body.
Asim Kumar who is also an Executive Director (ED) of Bangladesh Bank (BB) said, hundreds of cases have been remaining pending for years and many accused per
sons obtain bails easily taking advantage of ambiguities in the law. “Even criminal gangs caught red-handed by the law enforcers have been acquitted from the cases due to lack of proper evidence and witnesses,” he added.
Referring to a statistics, he said, some 5,468 cases were lodged with different police stations across the country since 1998. Of which, only 1,234 cases were disposed by this time.
Asim Kumar further said, poor disposal rates of such cases indicate that the existing law is more than inadequate to deal with the cases of currency related forgery, their speedy trial and proper punishment to the wrongdoers. “Considering the fact, the government should formulate a separate law to prevent the illicit activities in which the criminal gangs are injecting huge amount of fake currency notes in the market,” he suggested.
“A separate law is a must to prevent the circulation of fake currency notes in the market,” said Monirul Islam, Joint Commissioner of Detective Branch (DB) of Police.
14 teams of DB Police are actively working to prevent the illicit activities in the city and a senior official of the department is representing the core committee.
“We have arrested so many gangs in last few years, but the criminals have been acquitted from the cases due to absence of a strong law,” Islam said.
The DB high official suggested for using ‘special power act’ while filing cases of fake currency and their trial, preparing seizure list and taking signatures of the criminals and witnesses on spot. Besides, a concerted effort from all the concerned department is needed to combat the crime.
-With The New Nation input
