On April 15, the Nagpur-Mumbai Duronto Express was being used to smuggle at least Rs 60 lakh in cash hidden in sacks labeled cloth. The incident has been reported from Maharashtra, where the shipment was seized by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Mumbai when it arrived at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus the next day. The seizure came into light after random checking by the RPF during the model code of conducts enforcement. The incident has caused a stir in the Central Railways Nagpur division, which moved quickly to start disciplinary action.Reportedly, Rs 40 lakh was found in one parcel, whereas the other one contained Rs 20 lakh in cash, which has been seized by RPF personnel.#RPF Mumbai & commercial staff recovered unaccounted ₹60 lakh cash parcel packages from Duranto Express.A smooth operation to nab this bit of illegal money movement.#OperationSatark #TaxEvasion #SentinelsOnRail @RPFCR pic.twitter.com/uNRfpy2QvZ— RPF INDIA (@RPF_INDIA) April 17, 2024According to the sources, the ramdon checking was happened only for eight articles out of 250 parcels which were loaded in the brake-van of the train. The parcels went through X-ray machine and the cloth-labelled parcels stuffed with cash were given safe passage without the mandatory scan, said top railway sources, even though Nagpur division was first to install an X-ray scanner machine to fortify the station on lines of airport terminals. The flaw in the security system was has come into light which has kept the railway commercial staff in dark.Taking swift action in the case, three commercial division employees have been suspended. In addition to this, a fine of Rs 1 lakh has been imposed on the contractors who had parcelled the same. Sources claim that initially their contract was scrapped but later revoked with a warning.According to preliminary investigation, the cash belonged to a Gujarat-based businessman, which was pointing the hawala channel from Mumbai via Nagpur.
