Rs 3.20 cr in cash, Kanchi seer’s idol seized

One of the flying squads, which was checking vehicles on GST Road near Ponnerikarai in the morning stopped and checked a car in which they found a woman carrying a freshly-sculpted idol of the pontiff of the Kanchi Sankara Mutt made of panchaloha and weighing around 18 kg. They also found Rs 1.34 lakh in cash in the vehicle. Upon enquiry, Gnanammal, the inmate, told officials that she was carrying them to the Kanchi Sankara Mutt. As she did not have valid documents to support her claim, the officials seized the idol and the cash, which were later handed over to the district treasury in Kancheepuram.

In another incident, another flying squad at Cheyyur was conducting an inspection on the East Coast Road near Mudaliyar Kuppam. When they stopped a van, they found the passengers inside carrying Rs 3.2 crore with them. Although they claimed that the money belonged to a private bank and that it was being transported to Puducherry to be loaded into ATMs, there was no documents with the persons travelling in the van. The officials subsequently seized the cash and handed it over to the Cheyyur taluk treasury.

Meanwhile, Raghuvaran of Kancheepuram was travelling on his car when a flying squad, headed by the Uthiramerur tahsildar, stopped him near Thandarai and found him in possession of Rs 7.3 lakh in cash. Although Raghuvaran said that he was carrying the money for business purpose, he too failed to show proof and the cash was seized. In a few other similar incidents, Rs 2.2 lakh and Rs 5 lakh were seized from a 50-year-old man and a rice-mill owner at Maduranthakam respectively along the Kancheepuram-Vandavasi Road.