A bag containing Rs10 lakh in cash was recovered today in the coupe of Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit in a first class air-conditioned coach of Bhopal Express in which he was travelling from Delhi, triggering a controversy.
According to police, the bag was handed over to the Government Railway Police (GRP) by the coach attendant shortly after the arrival of the train in Bhopal this morning.
The GRP has seized the bag in which the hard cash was neatly packed in bundles of Rs1,000 notes.
Initially, it was believed that the bag belonged to Dikshit, son of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, but he denied it saying he had nothing to do with the bag.
Dikshit claimed that the bag containing cash was not his, but it belonged to a friend of his who was travelling with him in another AC coach.
Dikshit, a Lok Sabha MP from Delhi, told the GRP officials that the bag belonged to Jayesh Mathur who had requested him to keep the bag with him for safety reasons.
"He was in coach A1. He brought the bag and asked me to keep it safely as it had valuables and I agreed to keep it with me," Dikshit said, adding "while deboarding we forgot to take the bag in a rush."
Dikshit said a "needless controversy" has been created because of the bag incident.
Mathur, who reportedly was scouting for a property in Bhopal, said he did not expect the brouhaha over the incident.
Mathur accepted that the money belonged to him and that he was carrying it for some payment in Bhopal. He said he has approached the GRP to get back the cash.
RPF Commandant AK Agnihotri said since the bag did not belong to the Congress MP, it has been kept in their custody.
The GRP checked the passengers list to verify who all were travelling in Dikshit's coach and consequently contacted him.
"I took that bag to the office. I kept the bag on the table. I saw notes in Rs1,000 denomination. It had around Rs10 lakh," said attendant Bhagwan Das, whose honesty has won him praise.
Das said he never entertained the thought of keeping the money with him."I am not greedy," he said.
