Treasure pours out of hospital locker

Staff at Jagjivanram Hospital were surprised to see currency notes stacked in a shelf that had stayed unopened for years; they peg the amount recovered at a few crores

Staff at Jagjivanram Hospital were surprised to see currency notes stacked in a shelf that had stayed unopened for years; they peg the amount recovered at a few crores

STAFF at the railway-run Jagjivanram Hospital, who called a locksmith to get a key made for a locker that had stayed unopened for years, could not have possibly predicted that they would hit upon a treasure trove.

Currency notes started pouring out from the locker as soon as the locksmith opened its door and they made a pile so high that three people took more than six hours to count the money.

The currency notes that were found inside the lockeru00a0of the railway-run Jagjivanram Hospital yesterday

While the railways has officially pegged the amount of the unexpected bounty at Rs 13.89 lakh, staff present at the spot said it was at least Rs 1 crore.

"The locker had stayed unopened for a few years and one of the nurses said she wanted to use it. We called a locksmith and everybody was shocked at what we found inside. Money started pouring out of it as soon as the door was opened," said a staff member.

"I saw the money on the ground as well as bundles inside the locker and it was easily a few crores. Some bundles were kept in a black polythene bag while others were wrapped in a hospital bedsheet.

When the money was being counted in the afternoon, I heard that they had counted up to Rs 80 lakh already."

A Western Railway (WR) spokesperson, however, said, "The denominations were small. There were 50- and 100-rupee notes and even some coins. Some of the notes had white ants on them."

"The amount should have gone directly to the railways. It is sad that so much money was left to rot here," said Dr A K Vyas, medical director, Jagjivanram Hospital.

Sharat Chandrayan, chief PRO, WR, said, "A high-level inquiry is being conducted by senior railway officials. The money will now be in the railways' custody."

Alpana Kilawala, chief general manager of the Reserve Bank of India's Department of Communication, said, "It is not necessary that white ants will only be present on notes kept in one place for a long time.
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If the shelf or building is old, white ants could have already been there."

Firearms too

This is not the first time a locker has thrown up a surprise. Firearms have been recovered from bank lockers at least thrice in the past:

Eight cartridges were recovered from a Vijaya Bank locker by Anti-Extortion cell, Pune, last year.

12 hand grenades were recovered from a bank locker in the city by the Mumbai police in 2006.