Eight persons, including a woman, were arrested by the Thilagar Thidal police here on Friday on charges of attempting to exchange demonetised currency notes from Brazil.
It is said that a special team from Thilagar Thidal police station (crime wing) detained Karunamurthy of Thiruthuraipoondi in Thanjavur district near RMS Road. Interrogations revealed that he had come here to exchange foreign currency notes of higher denominations and his contact had directed him to wait near Periyar bus stand.
The police team waited in the specific location and secured other suspects also. It came to light that a few of the accomplices had promised Karunamurthy to convert the foreign currencies, though they were demonetised now.
The names of the persons detained were given as Rajendran of Arantangi, Thirumavalavan of Sivaganga, Mahalakshmi of Chokkalinga Nagar in Madurai, Dharmaraj of Peraiyur, Pandian of Theni district, and Ramar and Udaykumar of Udumalpet.
A police officer said that possessing demonetised currencies was an offence. The gang had planned to get the foreign currencies valued at about ₹ 50 lakh exchanged for a lesser value through an agent who runs a shop on RMS Road.
Further investigation is on.
