Kolkata, Nov 4 — Rs 1.40 crore was recovered from Kharagpur station in West Midnapore district on Wednesday, an official said.
The money was being brought from Tatanagar in Jharkhand to Howrah in West Bengal. Before it reached its destination, it was caught by the Government Railway Police (GRP). A passenger has also been arrested in connection with the incident.
According to a Kharagpur GRP official, the incident took place in the morning. Rahul Soni was travelling from Tatanagar to Howrah by taking the Jan Shatabdi Express. When the train stopped at Kharagpur station, the GRP personnel on duty became suspicious after seeing his movements.
He was standing on platform number seven in Kharagpur with one bag on his back and two bags in his hand. According to the official, Rahul tried to escape as the GRP personnel advanced towards him. However, he was finally caught.
As the GRP personnel started questioning him, Rahul started giving incoherent answers. This further increased their suspicions. Finally, as soon as they started searching his bag, the GRP personnel on duty found bundles of Rs 500 notes in the bag.
A total of 280 bundles of notes were recovered from him. Rahul could not give a satisfactory answer about where this huge amount of cash came from. Therefore, the Kharagpur GRP detained him and informed the Income Tax Department. Later, he was also formally arrested.
Superintendent of Railway Police (Kharagpur) Jayanta Mukherjee said that the passenger is being interrogated to find out the source of this huge amount of money. According to the GRP official, the arrested person's house is in Howrah.
During interrogation, he admitted that he was bringing the money from Tatanagar to Howrah. However, it is still not clear from whom in Tatanagar he was bringing the money and for what purpose.
There are reports of such cash being recovered from the Howrah station premises from time to time. Many people are also caught for not being able to show the source of the cash. This time, more than one crore rupees in cash was recovered from Kharagpur station.
Incidentally, shortly before this news came to light, Diamond Harbour Police had also recovered more than one crore rupees from a Trinamool Congress party office in Sarisha of South 24 Parganas district.