New Delhi: For nearly six months last year in the jungles of west Bastar in Chhattisgarh, Maoist insurgents were trained in the technique of printing fake currency notes, officials aware of the matter said a day after state police and the Central Reserve Police Force seized a cache of fake notes and printing machines from Sukma.
“We have information that in 2023, people from outside the state came to the jungle and then conducted the training. These people were contacted by senior Maoist leaders according to their long-term plan,” an official said, declining to be named. “The paper used in the printing the fake notes of the top quality that is seized by the police in metropolitan cities or the ones often seized by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). But it did not matter because Maoists were using it to trade with local villagers. It was being circulated in the weekly markets of the Bastar region,” one officer said.
On Saturday evening, state police and the CRPF’s 50 battalion had conducted raids in the jungles of Korajguda during which Maoists fled but left behind two Canon printers, an inverter, nearly 200 bottles of ink, four cartridges, and nine printer rolls among other items.
“The printing was done using solar energy. It was attached to the inverter as a power source. We recovered fake notes in the denomination of ₹ 50, ₹100, ₹200 and ₹500, but not ₹ 2,000 notes.They were using it to dupe villagers in the jungles and used this fake currency to buy their essential needs and even basic military items,” the officer said.
The decision to hold training to print fake currency notes was taken at a meeting of Maoist leaders in December 2022. “Over the years, the crackdown against LWE (left wing extremism) groups had led to their finances being choked. They need cash to buy basic items from villagers. We have information that printing of such fake notes was being done in areas under Mailasur, Korajguda and Danteshpuram areas of Sukma,” the officer said.
Security forces are working to identify the other places where Maoists were engaged in a similar operation, said Kiran Chavan, Sukma’s superintendent of police.