The world’s currency king was on board the plane hijacked in Kandhar. Otherwise, as the terrorists did not know who he was, India was spared a big headache.
–Galla S Kiran Kumar, Bureau Chief
The flight took off from Kathmandu on December 24, 1999 and was hijacked shortly after. Also on the plane was a gentleman named Roberto Giori. If this matter comes out, there will be an outcry in 70 countries of the world. Because… De La Rue, a company run by this Swiss-Italian businessman in the UK, supplies key material for the printing of 90 currency notes used in the world. More than 70 countries used to print their notes using material in his company. Moreover.. He is also one of the richest people in Switzerland.
While Roberto was returning from a holiday vacation in Kathmandu along with his partner Cristina Calabresi, IC 814 was hijacked by Pakistani terrorists. With this, Roberto has somehow caused the international pressure on India to accept the demands of the terrorists. Switzerland sent a special team to Kandhar for Roberto. In fact, the hijackers also demanded 200 million dollars in cash. Little did they know at the time that the man they had captured was the one who would print the currency of most countries in the world. This matter was published by Times magazine in the year 2000.
The De La Rue company supplies central banks around the world with the secret thread and security holograms used in currencies. The company used to supply these to India till 2016. That year, the company’s name also appeared in the Panama Papers. It also stated that a commission was paid to someone here to get a contract for bank notes in India.
In 2010, the water mark paper supplied by this company to India became controversial. These were revealed in the internal investigation. It was found that the employees of this company submitted false certificates to the Reserve Bank of India. British agencies informed India about this. After that the company was blacklisted by the government. In 2011, the Home Ministry refused to give security clearance to this organization. But in 2012, Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram gave his approval to buy Bharat Security Threads used in currency from this company. No tender process was conducted for this purpose. In 2017, the CBI investigated this matter. In their FIR, they stated that this act was criminal.
