Meerut, Sept. 3 -- A 21-member joint team of officials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) is tracing the cash trail of counterfeit currency worth around Rs.17 crore recovered from a PNB currency chest in Saharanpur, with investigators examining how such a large quantity of fake notes entered the banking system and passed through multiple layers of verification before reaching the chest.

The investigation has now moved beyond the recovery of the counterfeit notes, with officials scrutinising the entire journey of the cash, from its receipt at the bank to counting, sorting, verification and eventual deposit in the currency chest.

Investigators are examining records to establish when and how much cash was r...