A shocking incident of fake currency notes came forward, when officials of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), along with sleuths of Uttar Pradesh Police on Monday evening raided the currency chest of the State Bank of India at Domariyaganj near the border with Nepal.

SBI currency chest, from where the cash for all the local branches is distributed, had the sum total of Rs 70 lakh missing. The racket was exposed during the raid at SBI currency chest.

“This racket has been thriving with the connivance of the bank staff, which was clearly found to be involved in clandestine replacement of notes with fake currency,” reported Additional Director General of Police, Brij Lal.

He further added that this was the first time that a public sector bank was found to have been used to systematically push counterfeit currency into the open market.

The scandal clearly has roots in the last week’s arrest of four people with wads of fake currency notes in Domariyaganj town close to Indo-Nepal border.

Lal explained to this, “Sustained interrogation of Abid Sheikh alias Pundit, who was among the arrested, gave us leads to SBI bank cashier Sudhakar Tripathi from whose residence we discovered Rs 7,00,000 cash.”

The cops, however, discovered Rs 5,000 fake out of Rs 7,00,000.

RBI higher-ups were then urged by the police to check and scan currency chests of different banks, particularly in the towns bordering Nepal, form where the counterfeit currency was believed to be routed.

In a short while, more raids are expected to be carried out in other banks.