Vijayawada: Counterfeiting Indian currency is passé for this gang, which is involved in circulating fake currency.
In order to make lakhs out of a single note, the gang led by one Sk Jaleel of Machilipatnam adopted a new way of circulating Turkish currency Lira in the district but failed in their initial attempts.
City task force police who got a tip-off about the activity of the 10-member gang, put them under surveillance and finally caught them red handed while they were trying to sell off a Lira in the denomination of 5,00,000 at a city hotel a few days ago.
The gang includes Md Munna, Sk Khazavali, Viswanathuni Srikanth, Lakshmi Malleswari, Lakshmi Rajyam of Machilipatnam and Tiru-vuru and Bellamkonda Yasvanth of Hyderabad. Malleswari is wife of an advocate from Tiruvuru in Krishna district.
The gang members were arrested by Governorpet police under Section 489 (b) (c) read with 420 of IPC.
The gang of 10 members had 100 notes in the denomination of 5,00,000 and tried to sell them for Rs 10,00,000 each to various persons in Machilipat-nam and Vijayawada.
They told their customers that each note would get them Rs 1,15, 64, 195 in Indian currency if exchanged.
They claimed that they had more than Rs 115 crore in the form of Turkish currency.
Police who inquired about the validity of the notes with various bankers in the city found that they are not worth at least a rupee and are not in use in Turkey.
The Turkish government had withdrawn the Lira note printed in denomination of 1,00,000 to 10,00,000 in the year 2004.
Police said that the notes seem to have been printed locally but the gang was saying that they bought them from Chittoor district.
