Three persons were taken into custody on the charge of illegally carrying ₹1.65 crore cash aboard the Mumbai-Thiruvananthapuram Netravati Express here on Friday.
Sources in the district police said that acting on a tip-off, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) carried out a search operation in the train and found three persons carrying cash amounting to ₹1.65 core in two shoulder bags in coach B3 of Train No: 16345. They were taken into custody around 4.30 a.m. and handed over to the railway police. The local Manipal police were also informed about it. The accused have been identified as Prakash Kumar, Jaswant Singh (both from Rajasthan), and Ganesh from Sangli, Maharashtra. The three were travelling to Kannur.
Since a parliamentary byelection is on for the Shivamogga seat and the amount seized was over ₹50,000, the Income Tax Department was informed about it. Officials of the department are looking into the matter.
Sources in district police said it was suspected to be a hawala transaction related to gold because of the Kannur-Sangli link. In such cases, the smuggled gold is sold at a lower cost around Sangli, parts of Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
Whether the money was meant for the elections will be known only after the investigation by the I-T Department, sources said.