Malappuram: In what could be argued as the biggest seizure of unaccounted cash in Kerala, police recovered Rs4.40 crore from a hidden compartment of a vehicle during an inspection along the Valanchery-Pattambi stretch in Malappuram on Tuesday morning.
A vehicle check was launched at the spot following a tip-off received by the district police chief. The passengers -- P Hamza (48), of Kilinakkode in Vengara, and Fahad (32), of Kolappuram, A R Nagar -- were taken into custody, while the vehicle was impounded. The team that led the inspection included Valanchery Inspector K J Jinesh and civil police officers Vineeth, Anson and Vivek.
“The Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate will be informed about the incident,” said the district police chief.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that the money was being smuggled from Tirupur in Tamil Nadu to Vengara in Malappuram,” the chief added.
Last week, unaccounted cash amounting to Rs1.8 crore was seized from a car in Valanchery. With the latest incident, the total amount seized from Malappuram district over the past one week has touched Rs9 crore. Besides money, officials seized 1kg of gold that was being transported without proper documents.
