Hyderabad: In a joint operation, sleuths of SOT, LB Nagar Zone, and LB Nagar police on Thursday arrested members of an interstate cheating gang in Chintalkunta and seized demonetised Turkish currency of 10 lakh liras, valued at Rs 27 crore in Indian currency.
The accused were trying to sell the demonetised Turkey currency at lower than international rates, police said.
The prime accused Manchineella Om Naga Prasad of Eluru had, around eight years back, procured Turkish currency from a person in his native place. He has been trying to convert it into Indian currency, ever since, police said.
A few days back, he came in contact with Jyothi Ravi Teja and Thota Venkata Nagaraju and offered them a good share if they helped in exchanging the currency. Nagaraju contacted Pilli Bujjia, who brought along Jeevan Satya and Markuthi Teja. They decided to cheat the public by making them believe that the currency was genuine, police said.
In the early hours of Thursday, the accused came to Chinthalkunta, LB Nagar, in a vehicle and were trying to dispose of Liras when they were arrested.
Police seized 99 demonetised Turkish notes and other incriminating material from their possession.
