Three arrested while exchanging Turkey, Venezuela currencies

LUCKNOW: The police on Thursday claimed to have recovered currencies of Turkey and Venezuela, the worth of which runs into several lakh in Indian rupees, here on Thursday.

Police said three persons were arrested while trying to exchange the foreign currency in Wazirganj area here.

Those arrested include Rajat Rastogi and Sagar Singh from Lucknow and Anuj from Basti.

Rastogi owns a general merchant shop in Aliganj while Sagar is associated with business of construction material, said Jagdish Pandey, sub-inspector, Wazirganj police station.

The duo claimed that they received the foreign currencies, Turkish lira and Venezuelan bolívar, from Anuj who got the same from a Nepali resident.

Police said the Nepal resident had asked them to convert the foreign currency into Indian rupees in lieu of hefty commission. He said the currencies included one note of 5,00,000 Turkish liras, which is now banned in Turkey, and 300 notes of 100 Venezuelan bolívar.

“In Indian rupees , the Turkey currency would have been worth ₹ 84.86 lakh and the Venezuela currency is worth ₹ 4.5 lakh,” he said. Pandey said the Nepali resident had apparently tried to fool them by taking advantage of their ignorance about foreign currencies. He said the officials of enforcement directorate have been informed about the seizure for further investigation in the matter.