The story of the “Khanani Brothers” shown in the film Dhurandhar is not fictional. It is 100% true.
They were twin brothers from Karachi : Javed Khanani and Altaf Khanani. In 1993, the two started a money exchange business in Karachi under the name “Khanani & Kalia International.” Over time, it became Pakistan’s largest money exchange company, controlling nearly 40% of Pakistan’s currency business.
But their real business was hawala. The brothers laundered black money for Dawood Ibrahim, Al-Qaeda, and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Along with the ISI, they built a massive network to push fake Indian currency into India. Eventually, they came under the radar of U.S. agencies, and the U.S. Treasury Department declared their company a “Transnational Criminal Organization.” In 2015, Altaf Khanani was arrested in the United States, where he remains in prison even today.
In India, after the UPA government led by Congress came to power in 2004, a new company was formed in 2006: Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), which began purchasing security printing paper and security threads for Indian currency from the British company De La Rue. The shocking part was that the same company was supplying the same paper and security threads to Pakistan as well.
For the ISI, there was now no problem; they had the paper and the security thread. What they needed was the printing die, which was also delivered to them by the same network that helped supply everything else. The ISI began printing Indian Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes in bulk, and Khanani routed these fake notes into India via Qatar and Nepal.
The truth surfaced in 2010, when Indian agencies got wind of the operation and conducted raids on seventy banks near the Nepal border. What came out afterward shocked the entire country. It was discovered that RBI lockers themselves contained thousands of crores worth of fake currency, so perfect that it was nearly impossible to distinguish from genuine notes. What lay in the homes of ordinary citizens was beyond imagination. In panic, the UPA Government promptly blacklisted De La Rue.
But in 2012,, the UPA Government resumed purchasing paper from the same blacklisted company, De La Rue. Pakistan once again benefitted massively printing Indian currency, using it to buy weapons, recruit terrorists, train them, and execute attacks like 26/11, bomb Indian cities, and fund anti-India activities within India itself all using India’s own money to destroy India.
Then came 2014, when awakened Indians worked relentlessly and made Narendra Modi the Prime Minister. One of his first actions was to re-blacklist De La Rue.
Then came the night of 8 November 2016. At 8 PM, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on television and, with just four hours’ notice, completely dismantled the fake currency network in a single stroke.
Pakistan collapsed overnight. Rs. 40,000 crore worth of fake currency held by Javed Khanani became worthless within four hours. He reportedly jumped from his building and died. Pakistan’s era of begging began and continues to this day.
As long as Modi remains in power, Pakistan will neither stand on its feet nor remain united. It was not just Pakistan that suffered. Those inside India who thrived on black money met the same fate. Many who once pretended to be staunch Modi supporters before 2016 were exposed afterward.
The pain of demonetization became a permanent wound for them. Demonetization was an extremely dangerous decision implemented with only four hours’ notice. Only Narendra Modi could have done it. In one move, he checkmated enemies on the other side of the border and also within the country.