The National Investigation Agency arrested an alleged peddler of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) on Thursday night.

The NIA had announced a reward of Rs 25,000 for help to arrest Enamul Sheikh, who was wanted for over two years for running an FICN racket, mostly in south India.

On Friday, he was produced in a court here and sent in a transit remand for four days. Sheikh will be taken to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh where he will be produced in the NIA court, said sources.

According to a statement issued by the NIA, a case on FICN peddling was registered at a court in Visakhapatnam in 2018. Mohammed Mahaboob Baig, Syed Imran, Firoj Sheikh and Tajamul Sheikh were arrested and a charge sheet was submitted against them.

“While Baig and Imran were found guilty and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years by the NIA court in Vijayawada, Firoj and Tajamul are still under trial,” the statement said.

It has been learnt from NIA sources that while interrogating the four persons, it was learnt that Enamul Sheikh of Mohanpur (a locality in Malda district) was actively involved in FICN peddling and had connections in Bangladesh.

In Malda, his native village is also not far from the Bangladesh border. Hence, it is easier for him to receive FICN from Bangladesh and circulate those through his network in south India and in other parts of the country.

“Sheikh had a close connection with Beigh and Imran, who had also visited Malda. Sheikh had arranged for their stay,” said a source.

Along with these four, there were some others who were later inducted into the network for circulating the FICN.

Finding that Sheikh played a key role in operating the racket and was maintaining a nexus with rackets based in Bangladesh, the NIA launched a hunt for him.

Mehtab Alam, an assistant public prosecutor in Malda, said a complaint of circulating FICN of over Rs 10 lakh was pending against the accused.