Turkish currency gang busted

​Hyderabad: The police in Hyderabad and Cyberabad Police Commissionerate on Monday arrested 17 persons from different places and seized banned Turkish currency with a face value of Rs 450 crore.

The Cyberabad and Hyderabad police received tip-off that some unidentified persons had been attempting to exchange huge amounts of foreign currency. They promised foreign currency in exchange for smaller amounts of
Indian currency.

The Malkajgiri Special Operations Team police and SR Nagar police in a joint operation conducted raids and took 17 persons into custody.

The accused, the police said, had claimed that they received the Turkey currency from their bosses in Karimnagar, Rajahmundry and Guntur. The accused were given the task of exchanging the Turkish currency with that Indian currency in Hyderabad.

The police said the accused included a pastor from Lalapet. The police seized 198 notes of Turkish Ira with a face value of Rs 10 crore at SR Nagar. “Investigation is going on and six persons are yet to be arrested in both the cases. The face value of the seized currency is worth Rs 440 crore,” the police said

The gang tried to circulate the Turkish Lira currency notes and coins belonging to pre-2005 series, which are no longer in circulation and are not accepted as a new series of Lira notes were introduced on January 1, 2009, police said.