The city police busted two gangs and arrested six persons for allegedly trying to cheat people with invalid foreign currency and coloured stones in two separate cases in the city on Saturday.
In one case, the police busted a two-member gang who were allegedly trying to sell demonetised Turkish currency, claiming it to be genuine currency.
The accused were identified as L. Vimal Kumar (31), a resident of Chittoor district, and V. Siva Prasad (30) of Vizianagaram district.
The police seized demonetised 100 Turkish lira currency, each of 5,00,000 denomination.
Addressing a press conference here in Visakhapatnam on Saturday, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Enforcement Bureau), V. Ajitha said that the accused Vimal Kumar and Siva Prasad were negotiating a deal with some persons by claiming that the demonetised Turkish currency notes were genuine ones.
The accused had allegedly procured the currency from some unidentified gang in Chittoor district for ₹70,000. These bank notes were actually banned since 2005. The duo were negotiating the deal with some persons and trying to sell it for ₹5 lakh in Indian currency.
“The gang was luring people by saying that they could sell the same currency to others for even higher prices. They were claiming that the currency was originally worth around ₹45 crore in Indian currency,” said ADCP (Crime) V. Suresh Babu.
In another case, the police arrested four persons for allegedly trying to sell coloured gem stones.
The accused were identified as N. Giri Babu (31) of Srikakulam, said to be the kingpin in the case, and mediators G. Sai Krishna (34), S. Babu Rao (52), and S. Dasavatharam (47).
Police said that Giri Babu had allegedly purchased the stones from some persons at Rampachodavaram in East Godavari for about ₹70,000. On November 6, the gang was allegedly in search of parties to sell the coloured stones.
Further investigation is on in both the cases.
