he city police nabbed three members of a four-member gang from Bangladesh for cheating people in the guise of selling US dollars on Friday. All the three nabbed were illegal immigrants who entered the country about two years ago.

Based on reliable information, a special team from the City Task Force (CTF) laid a trap and arrested them.

The arrested were identified as Mohammed Halal, a native of Sylhet city, Mohammed Masud Rana of Bagerhat district and Hasina of Sunamganj district. The main accused Bilal Shaik is absconding.

The police recovered seven notes of 20 US dollar denomination and four notes of one dollar denomination.

The CTF team, led by ACP I. Chittibabu and SI Hari, also seized Indian currency to the tune of Rs. 29,210 and six cell phones.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-I) Dr. C.M. Trivikram Varma, the gang members had committed three offences in One Town area, Maharanipeta, and MVP Colony.

They would cut newspapers in the size of currency notes and attach one or two dollar bills in the front and back to make it look like a bundle of currency notes and approach gullible persons, stating that they are offering dollars at cheaper exchange rate of about Rs. 30 per US dollar.

To convince the person they would even give a dollar to get it verified and once convinced they would exchange it for Indian currency and scoot from the place in seconds, even before the person could open the dollar bundle.

In one case, they had asked a pan shop owner to drop a bundle of Rs. 1 lakh of Indian currency to a beggar at Maharanipeta and collect the dollar bundle in exchange. “Believing them the pan shop owner had approached the beggar (member of the gang) and dropped the Indian currency and collected the dollar bundle only to be duped. In this way they had cheated three persons in the city,” said the DCP.

No passports

All the four had entered India from the Malda side of West Bengal and had stayed in Delhi and Jharkhand, before moving to Visakhapatnam about six months ago. They do not have passports and are illegal immigrants, according to Dr. Trivikram Varma. Talking to The Hindu , Hasina said that she along with a group of about 20 persons had entered India by bribing the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Border Security Force (BSF) on the Indian side to enter the country. She said that there were agents on both sides, who negotiated the deals and she had paid about Rs. 2,000 to the Indian agent and 1,000 Bangladeshi Taka to the BGB.

Indian currency worth

Rs. 29,210 and six cell phones were recovered from the arrested persons