After demonetisation of high value currency, crimes involving exchange of old notes with new notes have been reported in the city.
On Saturday morning, Panjagutta police arrested four accused including a home guard for robbing a trader who wanted to exchange new currency with the demonetised currency.
Police have seized Rs. 12 lakh and four mobile phones from the accused.
The accused have been identified as Dabbti Upendra, A Bucchaiah, Suragani Naveen and Suragani Naresh.
Naresh has been working as a home guard in the Anti-Corruption Bureau office while the other three are cab drivers.
The four accused planned to extort money from Upendra’s friend, Venkanna – a trader by profession, who would exchange the money for a commission of 5%.
Agreeing to the deal, Venkanna and his friend J Mahesh together decided to meet them at Petrol Bunk, near Somajiguda junction with Rs 12 lakhs of new Rs. 2000 notes.
However, according to their plan, one of the accused, Naveen, took the cash from them and asked them to wait for half an hour, till he brings the old notes, but later switched off his phone.
“Then he later lied to Mahesh and Venkanna saying they had been caught by ACB,” said Venkateshwarlu, ACP of Panjagutta.
As Naresh worked in ACB office, he called and threatened Mahesh saying they also have been booked and will be arrested soon.
“The victims approached a local reporter and narrated the whole story. Later the reporter informed ACB office and then directed the victims to Panjagutta Police Station. By tracing their numbers, we found out about the home guard and nabbed them all,” said S Mohan Kumar, Inspector of Panjagutta Police Station.
“They have been charged under Section 348 (Wrongful confinement to extort confession), Section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120 (b) (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) of IPC,” the inspector added.