Sentenced to 5 years in jail…
On Wednesday, the National Investigation Agency secured its first conviction of 2025, with the Special NIA Court in Mumbai sentencing four individuals to five years of imprisonment in connection with a case involving the possession of Fake Indian Currency Notes.
Originally this case, registered in January 2020, saw the arrest of five accused, with four pleading guilty.
The case began on January 16, 2020, when the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in Nagpur seized counterfeit currency with a face value of Rs 13.67 lakh and arrested four individuals. The NIA took over the investigation the following month, re-registering the case on February 10, 2020.
After extensive investigations, the NIA filed its first chargesheet in April 2020 against the arrested accused: Lalu Khan, Mahesh Bagwan, Randheer Singh Thakur, and Ritesh Raghuwanshi. A fifth accused, identified as Sohrab Hosen from Malda, West Bengal, remained at large at the time.
Hosen was later apprehended by the NIA in June 2020 and was found to be involved in smuggling fake currency and Phensedyl cough syrup across the Indo-Bangladesh border. The NIA filed a supplementary chargesheet in September 2020, detailing his role. However, Hosen died in Lucknow prison during judicial proceedings.
The four accused - Khan, Bagwan, Thakur, and Raghuwanshi-pleaded guilty before the Special NIA Court in Mumbai. The court sentenced them to five years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 3,000 each.
Edited By: Tanvi Walia
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