Eleven members of a gang, including a head constable from Karnataka, were today arrested on charges of cheating and dacoity after duping two persons of lakhs of ruppees in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.

The gang members, led by one Chandra alias Raju, included Head Constable Papanna from Kolar district of Karnataka and nine others. They hatched a conspiracy to commit dacoity on the pretext of exchanging old series of Rs 500 currency notes issued prior to 2005, they said.

The accused induced people to give their old series of Rs 500 notes and offered them to give double the denominationamount in return, Deputy Superintendent of Police Palamaner (Sub-Division) Y Harinath Reddy said, adding, the accused lured victims over cell phones and asked them to come to a particular place as part of the offer. Two persons, Harshavardhan Reddy and Kaushik, got lured to their offers and went to places called by the gang members with Rs 25 lakh and Rs 6 lakh respectively in December last year, the DSP said.

The gang members, posing as policemen, robbed them on knife-point, he said. Following complaints lodged by the victims, police booked separate cases and during course of investigation arrested 11 members from Bangarupalem police station limits of Chittoor district and seized Rs 29.85 lakh in cash, 1 kg fake gold coins, fake police uniforms, iron rods, and knives from them. The accused were booked under sections 395 (dacoity), 397 (robbery), 420 (cheating) and other relevant sections of IPC, the DSP added.