How Shamirpet land deal led Rachakonda cops to 1 Cr fake currency, 5 arrested

THyderabad: The Keesara police arrested five persons, including a woman, on Friday for running a black money exchange racket and recovered fake currency notes worth Rs. 1 crore and Rs. 1.3 lakh original currency notes.

On 3 September, the police received a complaint from a 44-year-old businessman, Narreddy Raji Reddy, of Karimnagar who said he had been cheated to the tune of Rs. 5 lakh by the gang. He had become acquainted with a woman, Bhagyalaxmi, six months ago who had agreed to help him purchase land in Shamirpet, Hyderabad, at a low price. She asked Mr. Reddy to arrange Rs. 5 lakh as advance.

On 2 September, Mr Reddy took the money and drove to Shamirpet. While on his way he received a call from one Anwar who said Bhagyalaxmi was unable to come to Shamirpet so another person, Azam, would guide him. Mr. Reddy met Azam in Shamirpet, accompanied him to his car, and took the cash with him.When they reached the outskirts of Thimmaipally, three persons, one of whom was a police officer, stopped the car and accused the two men of carrying black money. They asked Mr. Reddy to come out of the car and then the five men drove away with the money, leaving Mr. Reddy behind.

On 10 September, the crime team of Keesara police apprehended Mohd Azeez (35), Anwar Pasha (38), Subhash Chandra Bose (41), Marri Nagaraju (28), and Jangam Bhagya Laxmi (40) near the Shamirpet ORR flyover. Two persons, Ravinder Singh and Rajesh, are absconding.

All the arrested persons were brought to the police station where they confessed during interrogation. Their account, however, varied from Mr. Reddy's and involved exchanging black money for legal money.

The truth revealed

The gang was also involved in exchanging black money. Subhash Chandra Bose who has been working in the Telugu film industry as a production manager arranged Rs. 1 crore worth of fake currency notes. For this, he contacted an art director who ordered the fake currency from a printing press in Krishnanagar, Yousufguda.

Bose introduced Azeez as an ad film director and said he needed the dummy currency notes for a government advertisement he was shooting. Anwar who used to play small roles in films arranged for a police uniform. Meanwhile, Bhagyalaxmi and Ravinder Singh, who owned a lodge in Karimnagar, were entrusted with the job of trapping prosperous people.

As per their plan, Bhagyalaxmi contacted Mr. Reddy and told him that by December this year, Rs. 2,000 denomination notes will be banned. She said that some wealthy persons wanted to exchange their black money and asked him to bring Rs. 1 lakh legal tender and said they will give Rs. 5 lakh in return. Mr. Reddy withdrew Rs. 5 lakh and took it to the gang who then escaped with the money. However, Mr. Reddy did not reveal the black money episode for fear of facing legal consequences.