Dimapur, June 29 (MExN): In a case of counterfeit currencies infiltrating the market; an electricity consumer was allegedly assaulted by the police personnel manning the electricity bill payment counter near Latika Hall here on June 28 last.
Reports reached here that Babul Dey, a clerk attached with Digitec IT under Sikkim Manipal University in Dimapur was ‘assaulted’ by some jawans guarding the office for possessing a counterfeit Rs 500 note, with which he ‘unknowingly’ tried to pay the bill. In the process, the jawans, it was alleged, started assaulting the clerk without hearing the views of the clerk about the illegal possession. The jawans even tore the Rs 500 note in their anger, sources alleged.
Sources for the Sikkim Manipal University disclosed that the fake currency might have come one student from Walford Colony who got admitted in the university recently. That particular student, said the source, also confessed that the money was given by a shopkeeper in exchange for an equivalent amount of coins from her. However, the University’s authourity is reportedly very annoyed at the action of the jawans.
When contacted, a power department official said that the victim tried to come and pay the bill with the counterfeit money three times which angered the jawans and which ultimately compelled them to ‘harass’ the victim.
However, interestingly, no cases have been filed with the police stations so far.
One Dimapur police official, when contacted, said that a person found possessing counterfeit currencies is liable to be arrested and punished under the law. However, he at the same time said that if the jawans had assaulted the victim without any reason, then they are equally liable to be prosecuted.
It may be mentioned that a lot of fake currencies have been found to be circulated in the market with unsuspecting innocent citizens facing a lot of problems and also affecting the local economy adversely.
Police suspect that the masterminds of this fake currency racket to be the illegal Bangladeshis and Pakistan’s ISI agents and other Islamic organisations.
A police official lamented that ‘these people’ have the contacts, money and mobility and so the police cannot get hold of them.
“You and me, we cannot steal even 100 rupees, but these people can do it easily because they have the contacts,” said a veteran policeman in the city.
However, he consoled himself by saying, “It is said that the long arm of the law will catch on, so lets us pray and hope for it.”
