Lakhimpur’s fake gold trade and Junmoni’s death; new pandora box

North Lakhimpur: The death of police officer Sub-Inspector Junmoni Rabha in a mysterious car accident has, among other things, linked Bangalmora in Lakhimpur district to the notorious illegal business of fake gold and bogus currency.

In a fast-developing scenario, it has now been established that the deceased police officer, who was posted in Nagaon district, came to Bangalmora on May 6 to nab Asgar Ali, a fake gold trader, on a tip-off from a local source.
A telephonic conversation between SI Junmuni Rabha’s local informant Hasina Begum in Bangalmora and Additional SP of Lakhimpur Runa Neog, which has now been transferred, has revealed the police-criminal nexus in the illegal trade of Bangalmora, Lakhimpur.
In the recorded telephonic conversation, which is now going viral on social media, Additional SP Runa Neog threatens to put Hasina Begum behind bars for her role against the fake gold counterfeiters of Bangalmora. It has been heard.
Ever since the accident, Hasina Begum has been constantly telling the media that SI Junmoni Rabha had warned her of the danger to her life and asked her to come to Nagaon for protection. She also alleged that police officers from Nowboicha, Bangalmora outposts and Narayanpur police station were also cooperating with fake gold traders.

People have been alleging police complicity in the fake gold trade in Bangalmora for the past several years.
This illegal trade is going on in a small area of ​​only a few square kilometers which includes the villages of Pandhowa, Borsola, Mohghuli, Tinithegiya, Sonapur, Jubanagar, etc, under Bangalmora, Nowboicha, Silanibari and Dolahat Police Outposts and Laluk and Bihpuria Police Stations.

The inability of the police to completely root out illegal businesses has also brought the district into disrepute.
Under alleged police protection, counterfeiters invite consumers to sell fake gold and counterfeit notes.

Customers are shown the note printing machines with the RBI logo which are actually very ordinary handmade toy boxes, where some real notes are kept inside.

This demonstration convinces the customers and they pay huge amount to double them with fake money.

The sellers then take the cash and disappear from the venue, leaving the buyers stranded in uncharted territory.
Fraudulent consumers may not even go to the police because they know it is an illegal activity, or in some cases, even if they do, they are allegedly framed by the police.

This formula has been repeated in the Bangalmora region for a long time.

Counterfeiters’ modus operandi for the fake gold trade is to lure prospective buyers through phone calls through brokers to thugs to hand over the gold—often in the form of a boat or a crucifix—for several hundred thousand sum of money.

When a buyer came, they would take money and give them gold statues or boats or scare them away without any gold as per the deal.
In the last decade and a half, names like Lambu Syed, Abdul Razzaq, Nabiul, Zakir have been running these illegal activities under several police posts in the greater Bangalmora area.

The cat-and-mouse game between the police and the counterfeiters has seen police arrivals and arrests of both sellers and buyers over the years.

Sellers bail out soon and consumers suffer huge financial losses.
Police made a few captures from 2015 onwards that incorporates Ainuddin (2015), Yasin Ali and Afjaur Rahman (2016), Najibur Rahman (23), Ashraf Islam (21) of No 2 Sonapur, Akbar Ali and Abdul Hannan of No1 Sonapur town, Habibur Rahman of Balitika-Konwarpur, Mainuddin, Hasan Ali (25), Khurjat Ali (23), Mujibur Rahman of No. 2 Sonapur village, Rafiq Ahmed (37) , Jeherul Islam (35), Saiful Islam (29), Mizanur Rahman alias Mizu (2018), Shamsul Haq, Rajibul Ali, Motibur Rahman and Sirajul Islam of No 2 Sonapur, Mijarul Islam (26), No 1 Ahmedpur, Jeherul Hoque Talukdar alias Bhaiti,No1 Daulatpur, Abdul Shaheed (32), from Paschim Singibari, Rupohi, Nagaon, Yusuf Ali, of Borsola No. Kurban Ali (27), of No. 2 Islampur (2019), Md. Riyajul Islam (22), Uttar Mohghuli and Md Abdul Sattar (46) of Sonapur, Md Soriful islam (30) of No.1 Ahmedpur, Md Sadikul Ali (21) and Sajida Begum(37) of Meneha village (2020). None of them are now behind the bars.
Notably, on June 28, 2016, the police dug up the floor of Qassem Ali’s house in Fatehpur village of Bangalmora in connection with ULFA treasure worth Rs 300 crore allegedly hidden in a Rani temple near Guwahati.

Although the police did not find anything in the operation, the assets of a farmer, Qassem Ali, surprised everyone, which included 15 trucks, an SUV and several other cars along with a sprawling house.

According to locals, a quarter of the youth in the Greater Bangalmora area are involved in this illegal trade as traders.
The biggest question that remains unanswered in the fake gold forging business of Bangalmora, Lakhimpur has been the supply of material used in making fake gold or printing currencies.

The infrastructure needed to print fake notes is unlikely to exist in Bangalmora and hence questions the potential route of supply across international borders.

Addl SP Runa Neog, who has been posted in Lakhimpur since 2017, is accused of being involved in the fake gold business of Bangalmora.
The threats to Junmoni Rabha’s informant Hasina Begum and the protection of Asgar Ali by the Nowboicha police now raise many questions on the role of law enforcers in this infamous crime.

Ali was arrested by deceased SI Junmoni Rabha on May 6 in Bangalmora.

The mysterious death of SI Rabha and the telephonic conversation between Adl SP Neog and Hasina Begum are sure to open the pandora’s box of this fake gold story.