Siddalinga Swamy was arrested while he was waiting to board a bus to Bangalore, with four bags containing two quintal of coins. CPI Natraj and his staff intercepted him at NH-13 and seized the coins. Based on the information given by him, a team led by PSI Wodeyar arrested Suresh and K Ravi in Bangalore and seized 3.65 quintal coins.
On interrogation, Siddalinga Swamy confessed that the gang was into selling coins to blade-manufacturing companies. They would collect one, two rupee coins and also old one and two anna coins and sell them to one Ravi at Cottonpet, Bangalore, who used to pay Rs 250 per kilogram of coins. He also revealed that they were dealing in Andhra Pradesh and were selling coins at a price more than its face value.
Published 26 January 2010, 17:28 IST