MADURAI: Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday sought an explanation from the prosecution in a counterfeit currency case registered against Serina alias P. Janani (24) and a few others.

Hearing a petition moved by the Crime Branch-CID, which sought a direction to the Special Court for Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Cases to discharge the fixed deposit under which the money was deposited, Justice R. Regupathi posed a series of questions to the Additional Public Prosecutor.

The Judge wanted to know how did the Reserve Bank of India officials, who verified the currency lying in the chest of Indian Overseas Bank at Anna Nagar here on November 28, 2003, November 19, 2004 and August 1, 2004, certified it to be genuine when the Government Press, controlled by RBI, in Nasik had informed the Income Tax department as early as on March 23, 2004 that the serial numbers of a part of the seized currency were yet to be let into circulation.

For this, the APP replied that the officials in Nasik brought the counterfeiting of currency to light, while the RBI officers from Chennai, who were not informed of the developments, continued to periodically certify the notes. Irked over the submission, the Judge said,"Mr. PP, are you making these submissions with all seriousness. People will laugh at us."

The Judge also wanted to know why the IT department lodged the complaint in the fake currency case only on June 18, 2006, when it was aware of it even during 2004.

Pointing out that the suspected fake currency was part of Rs.1,40,18,000 seized from Serina along with 30 kilograms of `ganja' on July 11, 2003 and that the Special Court on June 5, 2006 had acquitted all the accused from the narcotics case besides directing Bank of Baroda to hand over the money along with accrued interest to the 24-year-old-girl, the Judge asked, "How could I now disturb the findings of the Special Court which has become final and could be challenged only by way of an appeal?" However, he was satisfied that the investigation in the fake currency case would come to a standstill if the authenticity of the money was not verified by the CB-CID.

Since the APP informed the court that the fixed deposit was transferred from the IOB to the BOB on March 7, 2006 while the seized currency notes were still in the chest of the IOB, Mr. Justice Regupathi directed the Special Court to discharge the fixed deposit. In turn, the BOB shall issue a banker's cheque to the IOB, who shall deposit the currency in the lower court. On such deposit, the Special Court shall conduct an enquiry on the claim of the prosecution and pass necessary orders, the Judge added.

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