Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on May 22 arrested Saddam Hussain (23) from Bengaluru for his alleged involvement in the smuggling and supply of fake Indian currency notes (FICNs) in a 2015 case (RC 02/15/NIA/HYD FICN Vizag case), in which Saddam has been chargesheeted as accused number five.

He was produced before the XLIX Additional City Civil and Sessions Court (for NIA cases) for transit remand and was produced before the Special NIA Court at Vijayawada on Thursday.





According to IG of Police and NIA spokesperson Alok Mittal, Saddam, a resident of house No. 36, BTM Layout, is part of a larger “network who are involved in the smuggling of FICNs from across the border and circulating the same in various parts of the country, including Bengaluru after sourcing them from associates in Malda, West Bengal.”

Saddam was reportedly found in possession of FICNs with face value of Rs 26,000 including two demonetized Rs 1,000 currency notes, he added.

The NIA case relates to the seizure of FICNs with face value of over Rs 5 lakh from the possession of one Saddam Hossain (A-1) at Vishakapatnam in 2015. “During investigation it was revealed that Hossain had travelled from Bangaluru to Malda on the instructions of Amirul Hoque (A-3) and collected high quality FICNs from Roustam (A-2) on four occasions,” Mittal said.