NIA secures first conviction of 2025 in FICN case, four accused sentenced

New Delhi, Jan 15 The National Investigation Agency (NIA) secured its first conviction of 2025, with the Special NIA Court in Mumbai convicting and sentencing four accused to five years of imprisonment in a case involving the possession of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN).

A total of five individuals were arrested in the case.

The case was originally registered by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Nagpur, on January 16, 2020, when FICN with a face value of Rs 13,67,500 was seized and four accused were apprehended.

The NIA took over the investigation and registered the case under RC-02/2020/NIA/MUM on February 10, 2020. After conducting its probe, the NIA filed a charge sheet on April 7, 2020, against the four arrested individuals: Lalu Khan, Mahesh Bagwan, Randheer Singh Thakur, and Ritesh Raghuwanshi. One accused, Sohrab Hosen, from West Bengal's Malda, was declared wanted.

During further investigation, the NIA arrested the absconding accused Hosen, on June 29, 2020, and filed a supplementary charge sheet on September 24, 2020. The investigation revealed that Hosen had been involved in smuggling FICNs and Phensedyl cough syrup across the Indo-Bangladesh border. However, Hosen died in a Lucknow prison subsequently.

All four arrested accused - Lalu Khan, Mahesh Bagwan, Randheer Singh Thakur, and Ritesh Raghuwanshi - pleaded guilty before the NIA Special Court in Mumbai. The court sentenced each of them to five years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 each.