A fake currency racket was busted at Urup Kangthak village and Keirao village area in Manipur.

Two persons were arrested in connection to it. Besides bundles of fake currency, officials also recovered a large amount of drugs.

"We recovered 3,790 suspected World is Yours (WY) drugs, 60 grams suspected Heroin, 26 bundles and 89 numbers of 500 fake currency notes and 101 numbers of 500 fake currency uncut sheets," said police.

Further investigation is on.

Earlier on August 8, Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed Lok Sabha that the value of counterfeit notes detected in the banking system has reduced from Rs 43.47 crores in 2016-17 to Rs 8.26 crores in 2021-22 -- a decline of around 80 per cent.

Chaudhary was replying to a question on whether the value of fake Indian currency notes has gone up since demonetisation in 2016.

As per a report of the agencies, there have been instances where it has been found that the fake currency has been smuggled from neighbouring countries, the minister said.

"While notes seized by different law enforcement agencies have gone up, there is a discernible trend of reduction in the number of counterfeit notes detected in the banking system," he said.

Further, the number of counterfeit banknotes has come down from Rs. 7.62 lakh pieces in 2016-17 to Rs. 2.08 lakh in 2020-21.