DS Migration 4.2.4 variable value - showing special char

Hi,

After migrating from DS 4.2.3 to 4,2,4, one of the data flow conditional variable value is passing as '¿¿¿'  instead of actual character.

Following activities have been made to see whether this will resolve.

1. Global variable value in script and print - OK

2. run in debug mode - OK

3. change the scope to Local and pass parameter value - Not working

4. passing variable as a condition in data flow - Not working in fact its converting actual value into "inverted question mark".

any ideas or help will be much appreciated.

Thanks

Jagan