Hyderabad: Banjara Hills police busted a demonetised currency exchange racket involving a movie director and nabbed a 10-member gang which was attempting to exchange demonetised currency worth Rs 1.20 crore. Police said that Tollywood director Ramakrishna, who directed the movie Ketugadu was the kingpin of the racket.
Banjara Hills ACP N. Murali said that based on a tip off, police raided a dubbing studio in Kamalanagar in Srinagar colony and found some people counting demonetised cash.On inquiry the businessmen who came to exchange their old currency stated that Ramakrishna offered them currency exchange for a 50 per cent commission.
Dileep Kumar Jain, a businessman from the city, along with Waseem, Bilal and Basha of Mumbai and Krishna Prasad, brought Rs 1.20 crore in demonetised currency."Manoj and Rajesh, working as office boys in the dubbing studio were counting the cash, when the police team nabbed them along with one Tulasi Das, an associate of Dileep," the ACP said.
Two more persons who work as chefs in a catering agency were also caught, but police is still checking their role in the racket.The ACP said they have written to the Income Tax department to take the seized currency.
“We are probing how the persons came to possess old currency and on what basis Ramakrishna promised to exchange the currency with new ones. He could have hatched a plan to loot them in the guise of exchange,” he said.Police found that the process was going on for around a week, and Ramakrishna had asked them to gather on Saturday evening and exchange their currency.
However, he did not reveal to any of his clients the source of the new currency. A case of cheating (420) and an attempt to commit a criminal offence (511) were registered against the suspects.
