 |
|
People look for currency notes in Silsako Beel on Monday. Picture by UB Photos |
Guwahati, June 26: An unidentified youth met a watery grave in a mad scramble to find currency notes at Silsako Beel where currency notes in the denomination of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 were found floating yesterday today.
Witnesses said the youth, who appeared to be in his early twenties, drowned around noon when he, along with others, was searching for currency notes in the wetland.
An unnatural death case has been registered in this connection at Dispur police station and the body sent to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital for autopsy.
“The boy was wading through chest deep water looking for notes. All of a sudden he went under the water and disappeared. The onlookers, who were present there, fished out his body after 15 minutes,” Uddhab Deka, a resident of the locality, said.
“The incident happened in front of my eyes,” he said.
According to Deka, there was no policeman at the spot when the incident happened.
He said since early in the morning several people were seen trying their luck in finding currency notes at the wetland.
After the drowning incident, the police arrived there and chased away the people who have gone into the water searching for notes.
A huge crowd had gathered around the beel as people from other areas of the city came to the spot out of curiosity.
“I came to see what was actually happening after I saw a TV report last evening,” Gopal Chetry, a motor mechanic who came from Narengi, said.
However, no one has any clue about how the notes ended up in the beel.
Yesterday, some people who went fishing in the wetland had first noticed the currency notes floating on the water.
The news spread like wildfire and scores of people rushed to the spot to fish out as many notes as they could.
The people who found the money claimed that the notes were genuine.
However, the police will send a sample currency note to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ascertain if the notes were genuine.
The Opposition AGP today demanded a high-level probe to locate the source of the money.
“Are these notes black money? It is quite shocking that in a state where a couple recently had to sell their newborn to pay hospital bills, currency notes were found floating. The source of the money needs to be detected,” AGP general secretary Durga Das Boro said.
The Kamrup (Metro) district administration has entrusted Dispur circle officer Tankeswar Das to inquire into the matter and submit a report.
| 
