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Team from state in C'arh to probe cash seizure

Bhubaneswar: A day after Rs 10.9 crore in cash was seized from four persons in Chhattisgarh while they were transporting the money from Odisha, a joint team of state police and economic offences wing (EOW) of the crime branch have launched a probe to know the source of the cash.

A team of police officers from Nuapada district visited the neighbouring Mahasamund police station in Chhattisgarh to get more details.



“We have sent a police team from Nuapada to Chhattisgarh to probe the cash haul. The EOW will primarily look into the case. The police and EOW are in contact with Mahasamund police,” director general of police R P Sharma said.

Among the four arrested by Mahasamund police includes a woman. The cash was seized from the car they were in during routine check. The accused were identified as Banwari Singh, Prahlad Baghel, Mohd Ibrahim and Nazma Khan, all residents of Agra in Uttar Pradesh. After collecting the cash from either Bhubaneswar or Cuttack, the four were on their way to Agra via Angul, Sambalpur and Bargarh districts of Odisha. So far, nobody has come forward to stake claim to the cash.

Odisha police said they would scan CCTV footages at different check gates on the national highways and at some important junctions in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack to get some lead. “We have come to know that the four accused picked up the cash from a person somewhere between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. The accused were unable to tell the Mahasamund police about the exact location from where they collected the cash. The accused remained tight-lipped about the person who gave them the cash and the purpose behind it,” Sharma said.

He, however, added that the person, who handed over the money to the accused has been identified. 'We will interrogate him. He is a jeweler," Sharma said.

The seizure in Chhattisgarh has also raised question mark on the intelligence aparatus and alertness of Odisha police as the cash-laden car passed through several towns before being caught by the alert police of the neighbouring state.

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