A special NIA court in Patna on Thursday awarded life imprisonment to all four accused who were earlier convicted for their involvement in a case related to smuggling and circulation of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN).

The court headed by Manoj Kumar Sinha sentenced Afroz Ansari, Sunny Kumar alias Kabir Khan, Ishraful Alam and Alamgir Sheikh to life imprisonment for causing damage to the country’s monetary stability and for involvement in terror activities. They were held guilty under sections 120 (B), 489 B of IPC and sections 16, 18 and 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Special public prosecutors Lalan Singh and M.K. Sinha said the court also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 each on the four convicts. They have to serve two additional years in prison if they fail to pay penalty. On October 5, the court had pronounced them guilty in the case. “The convicts were later sent to Beur Central Jail under tight security,” they told The Telegraph.

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials seized the consignment of FICN, having face value of Rs 9.94 lakh, from Afroz Ansari, a resident of Ramgarh in Jharkhand, from Ramgarhwa in East Champaran.

The same was to be delivered to an agent at Raxaul, close to the India-Nepal border, on September 19, 2015. The seized notes were of Rs 500 denomination.

During investigation it emerged that a well-knit syndicate of FICN smugglers was involved in procuring fake notes from Bangladesh and dumping them in Nepal and India. The interrogation of the arrested smugglers led to seizure of additional fake currency notes with face value of Rs 2 lakh from the house of Alamgir Sheikh alias Raju at Malda in Bengal.

Forensic examination of the seized notes revealed they were of high quality and difficult to single out. Later, seven persons — Sunny Kumar alias Kabir Khan, Ishraful Alam, Alamgir Sheikh, Umar Farukh alias Firoz, Sanjay Kumar, Munna Singh, Mohammad Riyasuddin and Asikul Islam — were arrested.

Five of them were from Bengal while Sunny, Sanjay and Munna were from Bihar. The investigating agency filed a chargesheet against Afroz, Sunny, Ishraful and Alamgir on July 22, 2016.

A supplementary chargesheet was submitted against Umar and Munna in April this year. The absconding accused, Mohammad Raeesuddin of Malda in Bengal, was arrested on September 26.

The investigating officer said trial against the remaining accused was underway. Another accused is still at large. At least 20 cases were pending against Kabir, said to be Afroz’s brother-in-law.