Three Teachers Among Suspects for Stash Recovered From Ahmedabad School

Police investigating the recovery of cash and gold amounting to around Rs. 1.6 crore from a locker in a Kendriya Vidyalaya school in Ahmedabad have said they suspect the stash was the job of an insider. Investigators, attempting to trace the source of the stash, have zeroed in on three teachers, whose sposes are senior government officials.

On Monday, police had recovered Rs. 1 crore in cash and gold bars worth about Rs. 59 lakh from a locker of the Kendriya Vidyalaya in Chandkheda, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

"It seems clearly that some insiders or a core group should be involved. We have zeroed in on some suspects in the case,'' said Deputy Commissioner Mahendra Bagria, who is heading the team conducting the investigation.

Police claim the suspect had chosen the location to hide the cash and gold in the school as it is located inside the ONGC campus, which is guarded not just by private security guards but men from the CISF as well. "Perhaps the suspect thought that the ill gotten money would be safe,'' said Mr Bagria.

Examination of the recovered cash had revealed that about Rs. 70 lakh were fresh wads of notes, indicating they could have been withdrawn recently, say police. Accordingly, experts from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been roped in to examine the note markings.

Police also theorise that whoever put the cash and gold in the locker were unable to recover it before the police got to it.

"We have probed this angle. The school's principal had given a notice of the clean up to the staff at about 9 am, and it started within two hours. So perhaps, whosoever had hidden it here couldn't get the time to remove it,'' said Mr Bagria.