Bengaluru: Two men who allegedly tried to exchange Brazilian cruzeiros, the currency that was replaced with Real in 1994, for lower price has been arrested by the sleuths of the fraud and misappropriation squad of the Central Crime Branch here on Monday.

Mohammed Shafi, 56, a resident of ECW Colony in Davanagere, and Mubarak, 35, a resident of Shivanagar in Davanagere were arrested by the squad.

Based on a tip off that some people were trying to exchange Brazilian currency at Bell Hotel in Cottonpet police station limits, the sleuths swung into action and arrested the duo.

“The accused were trying to cheat people by claiming that the Brazilian currency notes they had were worth Rs 21 lakh. As they were in urgent need of money, they were exchanging it just for Rs 13 lakh. We have recovered 131 notes, each in the denomination of one lakh, worth 1,31,00,000 cruzeiros. It is around 17 crore in Indian currency,” the police said.

The accused revealed to police that they got the currency notes from Jabeer and Faizal, both natives of Palakkad in Kerala, though knowing that they had been demonetised in Brazil.

Police are on the look out for Jabeer and Faizal.