The Business of Counterfeiting

by Tarakeswar Dubey

July 3, 2006

The recent news in NDTV: “Police in Bihar's Darbhanga district have arrested a post office clerk and two agents in a fake currency scandal. The case came to light when a man who withdrew Rs 93,000 from a post office found that the 186 notes of Rs 500 each were faked. The Bihar police have sought the help of the RBI in investigating the incident.”

The counterfeit currency is not a new chapter in India. Only, the fake notes of 500 attract media attentions but the 'Jaali' notes of lower currencies such as Rs. 1, 2, 5, 10 etc. remain unnoticed.

The deal happens such as 100 coins of 5 rupees for a cost of 100 rupees. This way the 'Jaalsaaz' earns 100 rupees and the shopkeeper keeps the rest 400. As the profit margin is huge, the business is booming. In Mumbai, once my friend handed a coin of 5 rupees to the bus conductor. The conductor saw the coin with suspicion and rubbed it on his bag. The coin received scratch marks and its color paled. My friend had to proffer another coin to buy the ticket.

The 'Jaali' goods are deeply rooted in rural pickets fooling uneducated and innocent villagers deprived of media advertisements of genuine items. For example, well-branded soap Lifebuoy are sold in village shops as “Lifeboy” bearing the same size and color. Tata Salt is sold as “Tala Salt”, Nirma as “Nilma”, Halls as “Hals” Fair & Lovely as “Fair and Lovely” or “Fair & Louvely”. Sometimes even I get confused as to which one is legitimate and which is counterfeit. Unless you focus microscopic eyeball at the products, the demarcation amid real and fake is unviable.

It is better not to converse on medicines, as hardly any “Aam Aadmi” is familiar with the authentic spellings of pills and hence liable to be tricked easily. On several occasions, we have discovered medicines bearing sticker or hand written expiry dates or the parts of label that explicate the expiry date are torn or scratched.

Few years back news appeared in media about fake blood banks in Patna selling animal’s blood. Just imagine what will happen at the time of emergency, you are pumped with pig’s blood?

In one of my friends dairy farms, they dilute original milk with Soya milk to sham “malaidar doodh”.

In Delhi many of my friends don’t drink Lassi outside as they witnessed paper clotting of curds to forge “Gaadhi Lassi”.

The Government has constituted Vigilance Departments to clutch the bogus operandi, but their incursions are pre-cautioned to the shop owners and on each raid, the business community, to cover up their misdeeds, gift ransom cash to the Vigilance Officers. The involvement of Government machineries such as Police Commissioner R. S. Sharma, Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Chhagan Bhujbal in fake Stamp Papers, Petrol dilution etc. fabricates the situation even worse. But these shameless politicians, instead of burying their face, they launch the Brahmashtras such as caste-based reservations to cover up their misdeeds.

Only the voters can revolutionize the doom but they are too keen in balloting their own community leaders, bahubalis, glamorous and charismatic personalities rather than genuine and gentlemen leaders.

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