Hyderabad: The commissioner’s task force’s west zone team arrested eight persons, including a student and a chartered accountant, who were moving with scrapped currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations. The cops seized Rs 4,41,81,000, nine cellphones and a car. The arrested persons are P. Kalyan Prasad, 38, a real estate businessman, Mohd Farooq, 55, a car dealer, Mir Muzaffar, 32, engaged in the rice business, pearl businessman Gowtham Agarwal, 51, contract employee Y. Surya Prasad, 34, builder K. Harinath Babu, 50, Chartered Accountant V. Rajendranath, 31, and Mohd Mustafa Siddiqui, 20, a student from Falaknuma.

Kalyan Prasad and the others were friends since three years. Mohd. Farooq, Mir Muzaffar, Gowtham Agarwal, Mustafa Siddiqui and Surya Prasad told Kalyan Prasad that they were having old currency notes and wanted to exchange it with new currency and were ready to pay a commission. Prasad told them that he himself was having some old currency notes. Gowtham Agarwal collected old currency notes from his friends, Rishab and Ahmed Abdul Asim. Mohd Farooq collected old notes from his friend Syed Shakeel Hassan, a resident of New Malakpet, and Mir Muzaffar collected some from his friend Mohammed Abdul Hakeem Amir of Attapur.

“Together they collected old notes worth Rs 4,41,81,000. The group then devised a plan to exchange the demonetised currency notes in Hyderabad. Later, Kalyan Prasad contacted Harinath Babu and Rajendranath, who agreed to pay 35 per cent in new notes and they scheduled the exchange for Sunday," said deputy commissioner of police B. Limba Reddy. “On Sunday, Kalyan Prasad, Mohd. Farooq, Mir Muzaffar, Mustafa Siddiqui and Surya Prasad arrived at Gowtham Agarwal’s place in Banjara Hills, called K. Harinath Babu and V. Rajendranath, and asked him to come with new currency notes,” the DCP added. The police apprehended the gang with the money. as they were discussing the exchange. The accused individuals and the seized articles were handed over to the Banjara Hills police station.