Jalpaiguri/Kolkata: The Bengal Special Task Force, assisted by local police, arrested three men on Friday night from Cooch Behar on suspicion of links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and involvement in an organised fake Indian currency note network spanning north Bengal and Bihar.The arrested — Rashidul Haque and Nasiruddin Ali, both from Cooch Behar, and Md Shafiqul Islam from Kishanganj in Bihar — were produced before the Dinhata sub-divisional court on Saturday and remanded to 14 days in police custody.According to the STF, the trio collected Indian SIM cards using the identity documents of local residents, activated WhatsApp accounts on those numbers and forwarded verification OTPs to handlers in Pakistan and Bangladesh.“These SIMs were then used by anti-India forces in Pakistan to make calls and send messages to India,” an STF officer said.Investigators found the SIM numbers were being used to send WhatsApp messages from Rawalpindi and to make phone calls to the Rajasthan border area. The accused received payments in their bank accounts for trafficking OTPs over an extended period.Police are examining whether sensitive information about govt officials or others was leaked through these accounts. One of the accused had previously been arrested in a fake currency case three years ago.The STF said this module has no connection to two recently busted Jaish-e-Mohammed modules — in which three persons were arrested from Burdwan, Howrah and Jharkhand — or to ISI modules dismantled from Bongaon and Kolkata over the past month.“All three are separate modules,” a senior officer confirmed. STF investigators have identified Bangladesh-based contacts of the trio and will interrogate all three to map the wider network.In North Dinajpur’s Deona village, residents expressed shock at the arrest of Shafiqul, who had lived locally for years. His wife Sakhina Bibi said that despite 12 years of marriage, she had no knowledge of his permanent address or family background and that he frequently disappeared citing work. Villagers said they had long harboured suspicions about his activities and questioned whether he was an Indian national.
