CHENNAI: Almost 45 days after a woman ragpicker was found dead on a pavement at Otteri in Chennai and the city police conducted her last rites, about Rs 2 lakh cash and seven sovereigns of gold jewellery were found among the heap of waste in her hut on Wednesday.
Not knowing the woman had saved so much money, her sisters were living on a roadside pavement.
The deceased Prabhavathi, aged 60, lived with her sisters Rajeswari, 62 and Vijayalakshmi, 58, on a pavement in Otteri. On June 25, Prabhavathi died and her two sisters were unable to conduct the final rites as none were ready to help them. Finally, police inspector E Rajeswari of the Secretariat Colony police station carried out the last rites of the deceased.
"The sisters had a small hut (with tarpaulin sheets as roof) in Otteri. But on Wednesday I found them staying on a roadside pavement. When asked, they said the house is filled with garbage and wastepicked by them. We as a team pitched in with some money and sought help from the corporation to clean the hut," said Rajeswari.
While clearing the waste kept in sacks, they found a pot full of coins and another sack full of currency notes. Police were also surprised to find seven sovereigns of jewellery in the house. The coins and notes were counted and police said there was about Rs 2 lakh in all, apart from soiled currencies of 500 and 1,000 denomination (now demonetised) for about Rs 40,000.
Inspector Rajeswari said the cash and jewels will be handed over to the sisters after the house is completely cleaned so that they can stay there.