ELURU: Eluru Two Town police arrested two women who possessed demonetised Turkey Liras with a face value of `177 crore while they were moving about rousing suspicion on Wednesday night.
The police seized 194 demonetised notes of Lira of Turkey in 5,00,000 denomination and another 88 of `500 denomination Indian banned currency.According to police here, Gujjula Durga Devi of Kakinada and Vankayalapati Pavani of Vijayawada were at the old bus stand in Eluru town on Wednesday from afternoon till night .
Police who were on a routine check, questioned them as to what they were doing there. The two women panicked and police took both of them to the station. They told police they were trying to exchange the banned notes for regular Indian currency. Gujjula Durga Devi of Kakinada works in a cotton factory in Kakani village, Guntur. However, as she is facing financial problems, some of her co-workers told her to meet one P Srinivasa Rao, an astrologer.
After hearing her problem, Rao told her that if she helped him in exchanging demonetised Liras, he would give a her a fat percentage in regular Indian currency which would solve her problems. Trusting him, Durga Bhavani took the notes which were banned by Turkey Government and went to Eluru and began looking for the contact which Rao said would be in touch with her. She waited in Eluru for sometime and went back to Macherla and told Rao that no one approached her.
She went again and with one woman Vnakayalapati Bhavani
Both of them went to Eluru but they could not establish any contact with the buyer and returned. On Wednesday, Rao went with them to Eluru where he gave them a suitcase full with Liras. He then asked them to sit at the Old Bus Station and wait for the contact. They both were waiting at the old bus station when the police zeroed in on them.