Officials found counterfeit notes amounting to Rs 45, 44,000 in Rs 2,000 notes between November 11 and December 31, 2016 alone, National Crime Records Bureau data said. On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the scrapping of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination notes while citing counterfeit currency as a major reason for the decision.

The highest seizure has been recorded in Gujarat with 1,300 notes in Rs 2,000 denomination followed by Punjab with 548 and Karnataka with 254, the NCRB data said.

There are, however, some discrepancies in the figures recorded by NCRB and media reports which had emerged during the same period. For instance, in a news report published on November 21, the police in Odisha’s Bhubaneshwar had claimed to have recovered fake Rs 2,000 notes to the tune of Rs 4.80 lakh, but the NCRB report has recorded the seizure of only one fake Rs 2000 note from Odisha in the corresponding period.

The figures were recorded on the basis of what police departments have submitted in documents for the annual data collection process, an NCRB official said.

In April 2017, the government had told the Parliament that law enforcement agencies across the country have seized around 28,000 fake Rs 2,000 denomination notes since November 8. The new Rs 2,000 notes and replacement Rs 500 denomination with added security features were made available on November 11.