Delhi court acquits man facing UAPA for smuggling foreign currency worth ₹3 lakh
The court was dealing with a case involving, Raisul Azam, from Bihar, who was accused of possessing Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) worth ₹3 lakh
A man accused of smuggling foreign currency worth ₹3lakh was acquitted by a city court of terror charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) observing that such amount was “miniscule” to impact the monetary stability of the country having a GDP worth billions of dollars. The court, however, convicted the man for smuggling fake Indian currency.

The recent January 18 order was passed by special judge (NIA) Chanderjit Singh of Patiala House court.
The court was dealing with a case involving, Raisul Azam, from Bihar, who was accused of possessing Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) worth ₹3 lakh.
The order said, “…besides one single transaction where accused was involved in selling of high quality FICNs, no allegations are even raised regarding any conspiracy of which accused was part and that said conspiracy was meant to destabilize monetary stability of India”.
“It is a matter of common knowledge that GDP of India is in billions of dollars. Thus, an amount of ₹3 lakh in context of GDP in billions of dollars is a minuscule amount”, it added.
Azam was acquitted of section 16 of UAPA which deals with the punishment for terrorist acts.
The provision states that anyone who commits a terrorist act is liable to be punished with imprisonment, a fine, or both.
The court meanwhile convicted Azam under 489B and 489C of Indian Penal Code (IPC) which pertains to using counterfeit currency.
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Azam was arrested by a team of Delhi Police Special Cell in January 2022, which registered a first information report (FIR) claiming Azam was circulating the fake notes across Delhi-NCR after smuggling them from Nepal through the Indo-Nepal border.
The case was later transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The order noted that section 15 of UAPA contemplates that the prosecution is required to prove ‘intention’ of accused to threaten or likely to threaten, inter-alia, economic stability of India.
However, it found no allegations of Azam being a member of any syndicate or of being head of any organisation involved in smuggling, supplying, distribution and selling of fake currency notes.
The court will be passing an order on sentence on February 1.
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