In the four months since the government scrapped the old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes, Fake the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the police have detected fake ₹2,000 with a face value of ₹66 lakh across the country.

The government informed the Lok Sabha that investigations were on to determine whether the Security Features of the new currency notes were compromised.

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of the old notes and the introduction of ₹2,000 notes to weed out black money and fake currency notes.

The Prime Minister said the measure would help eradicate corruption and terror funding.

The Union Home Ministry’s reply in the Lok Sabha said that from November 9, 2016 to March 7 this year, 3,346 pieces of fake ₹2,000 notes were recovered. The highest number — 1,323 notes with a face value of ₹26 lakh — was recovered in Gujarat, followed by Delhi (1,261 notes with a face value of ₹25 lakh) and Karnataka (266 notes).

Smuggled in

Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said there had been instances in which the fake notes had been smuggled from the neighbouring countries. An investigation was on to find out if the fake notes were scanned or photocopied versions of the genuine note or if the security features had been compromised.

Recently, the Bengal police, with the NIA, had seized fake notes with a face value of ₹3.9 lakh.