BHUBANESWAR/BERHAMPUR: A team of Excise officials found cash amounting to about Rs 1.22 crore during a search in a bus under Baidyanathpur police limits in Berhampur on Tuesday evening.
Subsequent probed led to recovery of 24 gold biscuits, valued at about Rs 1.2 crore, from a jeweller of the city.
During routine checking of vehicles near Ankuli, the Excise squad found 35-year-old Dashrath Shaukar, a native of Maharashtra's Sangli district, to be carrying the cash which he could not account for satisfactorily.
The Excise officials handed over Shaukar to Baidyanathpur police for further investigation. While questioning Shaukar, the police officers established that he had received the cash in Rs 500 denomination notes from Berhampur-based jeweller Anand Subuti (60) for supplying him 24 gold biscuits weighing 2.2 kg and worth Rs 1.2 crore.
Baidyanathpur police then questioned Anand Jewellery owner Subuti and seized the gold biscuits from his possession. Since South Africa has been imprinted on the gold biscuits, police suspect the gold was possibly smuggled from a foreign country but the verification is continuing.
Shaukar revealed before the police that he works for a Cuttack-based jeweler but investigators are yet to confirm his claims. "Neither Shaukar nor Subuti was able to produce any documents related to the seized cash and gold biscuits," Berhampur SP Saravana Vivek M told The New Indian Express.
The two accused will be handed over to the Income Tax Department officers for further investigation, he added.