
NIA arrests accused in fake currency case
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested an accused in the 2013 Kasaragod fake currency case after securing his extradition from the UAE, where he had been in the custody of the local authorities since 2015.
Moideenabha Ummer Beary, who was wanted in four cases, was taken into custody by the NIA team on his arrival at the Mumbai airport from Dubai on Friday. He was subsequently taken to Kochi and produced before the NIA Special Court, Ernakulam.
The NIA had secured the revocation of the accused's Indian passport and had also got an Interpol Red Notice issued against him in 2013, soon after the recovery of fake Indian currency notes from four different locations in Kasaragod, said a communication issued by the agency.
Investigations revealed that Moideen, a native of Udupi district in Karnataka, had conspired with the co-accused to procure high-quality fake currencies with face value of ₹31 lakh from the UAE. It was later trafficked into India by another accused, Usman, by flight through Bengaluru. The accused had then circulated the currencies in Kasaragod district, according to the agency.
The NIA has so far chargesheeted six accused, including Moideen, in the cases.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
Delhi court allows extradition of man to stand rape trial in Scotland
A Delhi Court has allowed the extradition of a fugitive to stand trial in Scotland for sexual assault, rape and communicating Chief Judicial Magistrate Pranav Joshi was hearing the matter over the Centre's December 2024 order appointing and requesting the court to inquire into the extradition request by determining whether a prima facie case was made out against the fugitive criminal (FC) Naijil an order dated June 9, the court said, "Union of India is requested to extradite the FC Naijil Paul to the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for standing trial of the indictment charges against the FC before the High Court of Judiciary at Glasgow, Scotland through diplomatic channel." Till formalities of extradition were complete, Paul would remain in Tihar prison, it avoid criminal prosecution in the UK, Paul fled to India but was arrested from Kochi in Kerala and brought to the national to the Centre's order, the United Kingdom government submitted a request for Paul's extradition, who was "wanted to stand trial in connection with the offences allegedly committed in Scotland" for sexual assault, communicating indecently among other conduct under Indian laws amount to offence under Section 63 (rape), Section 74 (sexual assault), Section 75 (sexual harassment), Section 79 (word, gesture to act to outrage the modesty of a woman) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita which are punishable with more than one year imprisonment," it said.
&w=3840&q=100)

Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
Meity on alert to find Indian data in global breach; asks Cert-In to probe
Taking cognizance of an alleged global data breach, the Union government is taking steps to identify the quantum of Indian data in it, it is learnt. In what is being considered one of the biggest breaches globally, user names, passwords, and other sensitive personal information of around 16 billion digital accounts were leaked recently. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has asked the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) to seek an appropriate response from intermediaries, data centres, corporate bodies, and government organisations on the Indian data present in the global data leak and report back with details. 'Given the proportion of the global leak, it is very likely that the data of Indian citizens might be on the dataset,'' an official said. Cert-In is looking into it, he pointed out, adding that Indian firms too will have to look into it and report according to cyber incidents norms. Earlier this week, media reports suggested that data of nearly 16 billion accounts of Apple, Facebook, Google, GitHub, Telegram, and various government services were leaked. A Cybernews researcher team, led by Vilius Petkauskas, found, through an investigation beginning in January 2025, that the new records were scattered across 30 different databases and were most likely stolen by various infostealers. 'The datasets that the team uncovered differ widely. For example, the smallest, named after malicious software, had over 16 million records. Meanwhile, the largest one, most likely related to the Portuguese-speaking population, had over 3.5 billion records. On average, one dataset with exposed credentials had 550 million records,' Cybernews said in a report. Emails sent to Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft did not yield any response on whether they had sent any instructions to users on the alleged breach, and if data of Indian users was also found in the said breach. 'While the exact nature of these leaks remains unclear as investigations unfold, the critical takeaway for users and enterprises alike is unequivocal: reactive password resets are no longer enough. Proactive adoption of strong multi-factor authentication (MFA), particularly biometric verification, is now essential. It creates a critical layer of security that stolen credentials alone cannot compromise,' said Vijender Yadav, co-founder and chief executive officer of cybersecurity firm Accops. In 2022, Meity had issued comprehensive guidelines on the timelines by which any cyber incidents would have to be reported to Cert-In, along with the details of the nature of the attack, the systems, the quantum of data compromised, and whether the users had been informed about the compromise of the datasets. As per the norms then issued, the ministry had also mandated that all companies should maintain a 180-day rolling log of all of their information technology and computer systems and keep that data within India. As and when demanded by Cert-In, this data would have to be furnished in cases of cyber incidents.


Economic Times
2 hours ago
- Economic Times
UAE rule, wary I-T to deter dodgy crypto deals
Mumbai: In the lane to launder money, the skill to move cryptos to control companies and properties in Dubai has been honed over the past few years. But treading that alley would soon become tougher. Dual, albeit unrelated, developments in India and the UAE would force money movers to devise new tricks. First, Income tax (I-T) officials, hunting for illicit homes of Indians over the past six months, now strongly suspect that some property purchases were made with cryptocurrencies; second, a new regulatory regime in the Middle East country, would soon end payment in cryptos, other than stable coins, to freely buy goods and services. "When Indian residents use crypto to purchase real estate, they bypass Indian banking channels and FEMA scrutiny. But, under the new UAE regulations (expected from August), merchants would no longer accept crypto directly. Only entities licensed by the UAE Central Bank would be allowed to convert stablecoins to AED after collecting full KYC. While this framework ensures the buyer's identity is recorded, it remains unclear whether such data would be shared under the India-UAE tax treaty," said Purushottam Anand, founder of the law firm Crypto raiding a leading UAE developer having roots in Mumbai and clients across India, a northern office of the I-T department found that more than 460 buyers in the 650-odd property deals have no record of having remitted money through banks to acquire the properties. According to findings which were shared with other I-T centres two months ago, the arm of the UAE realtor which brokered the deals was aided by a network of 86 sub-brokers who later shared details with the tax office. According to tax circles, some of the clients had paid in cryptos, probably under the belief it would go untraced. Earlier this year, the department had found that hundreds of mule accounts were opened by a few persons in Kerala to deposit cash, use the money to buy cryptos -either on local platforms or through peer-to-peer transactions-and then move the coins to other wallets before encashing the them in UAE, or buying assets like properties, or transferring them to third parties. "When digital assets move from exchanges to P2P platforms or private wallets, monitoring becomes difficult, creating opportunities for illegal activities such as ransomware attacks, laundering, tax evasion, and potentially terrorist financing. Although the exchanges are required to report 'suspicious transactions', including withdrawals, with the Financial Intelligence Unit-India, such risks can be further addressed through stricter enforcement of TDS provisions, i.e. Sections 194S or 195, ensuring tax compliance for all crypto transactions, whether conducted on or off exchanges. Additionally, specifying the reporting entities and the format for disclosures under Section 285BAA will improve traceability," said Ashish Karundia, founder of the CA firm Ashish Karundia & Co. 'PAYMENT TOKEN REGULATIONS' The new 'Payment Token Services Regulation' lays down the rules and conditions established by the UAE Central Bank for granting a licence or registration for payment token services-which include payment token issuance, token conversion, and token custody and transfer. Under the rules no merchant or anyone in the UAE selling goods or services can accept a virtual asset unless it's a dirham payment token issued by a licensed issuer. Also, a bank cannot act as a payment token issuer. UAE is working on Dirham-linked stable coin (like USDT or Tether which is pegged to the dollar)."This would have implications for India which has close economic and financial ties with the UAE. By bringing digital assets such as payment tokens under a structured licensing and anti-money laundering framework, the regulation adds a layer of safety and transparency to cross-border digital financial flows. For Indian individuals and businesses engaging in the UAE's digital economy, on one hand this means greater clarity, reduced risk of fraud, and alignment with global best practices; on the other hand, the clear prohibition on anonymous crypto instruments like privacy tokens reinforces the global trend toward traceable and regulated digital transactions. This is something India is also actively pursuing through its own financial intelligence mechanisms. This would deter transactions in property, high value luxury products bought by Indians in UAE using crypto tokens," said Siddharth Banwat, partner at CA firm Banwat & Associates dealers said the UAE rules are not entirely fool-proof as coins can be routed through platforms in multiple jurisdictions whose cooperation would be vital to spot the trail. But the very presence of licensed intermediaries collecting and storing information would deter money movers.