An NIA statement said that Abdul Salam was a part of the criminal conspiracy to smuggle fake Indian currency to India via the United Arab Emirates. (Reuters)

Abdul Salam, as known as Podi Salam, a fake currency racketeer, known for notoriously collaborating with members of Dawood Ibrahim’s gang, was deported by Saudi Arabia and was nabbed by the National Investigative Agency on arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Thursday. Abdul Salam or Podi salam, as he commonly went by, was a resident of Kerala’s Malappuram district was wanted by the NIA in a 2014 case of fake currency seizure of over Rs 9 lakh at the Nedumbassery airport in Kerala. According to IE, the NIA filed a charge sheet stating that the accused (Salam) had been found in collaboration with underworld Don and Mumbai serial blasts accused Dawood Ibrahim’s henchman, Aftab Batki for the transfer of fake currency from Pakistan to India via the Gulf.

This fake currency case had first been registered by the Kerala Police in January 2013 following the apprehension of Abid Chullikulavan Hassan by custom officials at the Nedumbassery International airport on January 26. The NIA had then taken over the investigation in July 2014. An NIA statement said that Abdul Salam was a part of the criminal conspiracy to smuggle fake Indian currency to India via the United Arab Emirates. The statement also said that Salam had facilitated the smuggling through Abid Chullikulavan Hassan.

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The NIA further added that the case was still pending before the Special court at Ernakulam, Kerala. According to IE, one of the accused had gotten into contact with Aftab Batki with the help of an inmate while he was behind the bars in Mumbai’s Arthur Jail Road on the charges of smuggling of narcotics. Batki had then hired him to smuggle fake currency after he lawfully came out of jail. It has to be noted it was the same accused who had told the Customs department about the fake currency consignment but had to be arrested due to an active involvement in the trade.