HYDERABAD: Call it Innocence or ignorance, several people in Hyderabad are falling prey to the agents who lure them with banned and demonetised foreign currency. Police probing recent cases busted in Rachakonda commissionerate have reasons to suspect the source of the money to be from borders of Bangladesh and Nepal. Even on Thursday, Rachakonda police seized Turkish Lira worth a whopping `84.99 crore face value from four persons. Police say that scrap dealer Ravinder of Kurnool procured the banned currency from agents.
He reportedly gave the currency to his friend Shaik Noor Mohammed telling him that the banned notes can be sold in Hyderabad to unsuspecting people. Believing this story, Noor approached his friends K Rajashekar, A Srinivas and K Laxman for help in selling the banned noted. Meanwhile, acting on a tip-off, police busted the racket and the gang was apprehended at Uppal by the Special Operation Team sleuths. The officials said the accused knew that the notes were banned long ago, but still attempted to cheat the public by keeping them under impression that it can be exchanged.
This is not an isolated case. Banned currency notes worth over several hundred crores have been seized in the city and at least 100 people have been arrested while trying to trap customers. Currencies seized include Turkish Lira and Brazilian Cruzado. Both of these have higher exchange rates compared to Indian Rupee.
Rachakonda police in June last year arrested a seven-member gang trying to sell Lira at cheap rates in the city. It was found that agents hand over the banned currencies to sub-agents who, in turn, sell it to gullible people. However, usually, only the sub-agents get caught. “Many people does not know that some foreign currencies are banned and are not in use,” said a senior police official. “They buy it from the agents and after realising they are banned try to sell it again to other gullible people.”