VIJAYAWADA: Police seized banned currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations valued at Rs 5.31 lakh and arrested eight persons here on Monday.Acting on a tip-off that Ura Venkateswara Rao (50), a businessman, and his associates were meeting to exchange demonetised currency notes, the Task Force and Patamata police raided Manikanta General Stores, which falls under Patamata Police Station limits, and arrested the gang.
The other arrested persons are Pasupuleti Uma Maheswara Rao (52), a resident of Ayodhya Nagar, Shaik Hussain (48) of Penamaluru, Viswanadhpalli Yohan Kumar Varma (43) of Krishnalanka, Kedarnath Vimal Kishore (50) of Bharathinagar, Kalapala Suresh (50) of Bharathi Nagar, Vanapalli Kashi Viswanath (42) of Kankipadu and Kommavarapu Yesupadham (53) of Payakapuram.
According to police, Ura Venkateswara Rao had banned currency notes worth Rs 21 lakh and he collected more old notes from his friends and acquaintances. “They had entered into a deal with Sampath Rao, who eventually didn’t turn up, to find out ways to exchange the old notes with the new ones,” said DCP Satyanandham.The deal was to arrange new currency notes at a commission rate of 30 per cent, said Task Force ACP Muralidhar.
Three arrested for vandalising statue
Kakinada: Yeleswaram police on Monday arrested three persons on a charge of desecrating the statue of BR Ambedkar last week. Peddapuram Sub-Divisional Police Officer Ch V Rama Rao told mediapersons at Yeleswaram that Syed Siddi and Sairam of Sainagar and Kondeti Chandrasekhar of Ambedkar Nagar were arrested for vandalising the statue. The trio committed the mischief with an intention to create unrest in the village. The arrested were sent to remand when they were produced in court.