The sudden recovery of huge cash amounts from Kanchenjunga express before its departure from Agartala railway station has raised many questions just a couple of months before the Lok Sabha elections.

While, after recovery of Rs.66.57 lakh unclaimed money that during regular checking of the Kolkata bound Kanchenjunga express on February 14 evening, the Government Railway Police (GRP) again on Saturday morning recovered a total of Rs. 9.56 lakh from three persons including two women from Kanchenjunga express, just few minutes before its departure towards Kolkata.

Giving details, the station in-charge of GRP police station of Agartala station said that on Saturday morning units of GRP and RPF started their regular checking in many compartments of Kanchenjunga express and they noticed suspicious movements of three persons boarded in a coach.

Then, a team of GRP led by senior officers detained them and in the course of the search operation, police recovered a cash amount of Rs. 9.56 lakh from three people from Maharashtra state. They were identified as Sudev Barma, Krishna Barma and Seema Shinde, who arrived in Agartala city three days ago and on Saturday morning boarded at Kanchenjunga express to reach Kolkata.

Police said that they started investigation over recovery of such a big amount of money under their possession and they have also handed over the case to the Income Tax department for further investigation.

Earlier, on February 14, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) posted at Agartala railway station had recovered huge quantities of unclaimed Indian currency from a compartment of Kanchenjunga express.

During regular checking of the Kolkata bound Kanchenjunga express on February 14 evening, one RPF jawan  Manuj Sharma noticed a big bag lying near the toilet of Coach-B-1 of Kanchenjunga express.

He immediately informed his senior official and they rushed to the spot and after formal checking of any sabotage items, the RPF officials seized the bag.

Later, RPF opened the bag and found many bundles of Indian currency denominations of Rs. 200 and Rs. 500 and after counting with machines, the total recovery of unclaimed money stood at Rs. 66.57 lakh.

The official added that they initiated legal proceedings and informed the recovery of huge money from a rail compartment to the concerned officials of Income Tax and Customs.