Police trace & return woman's bag containing over Rs two lakh

The city police traced and returned the handbag of a woman containing over Rs two lakh cash, which she had forgotten in an autorickshaw in suburban Santacruz, an official said on Wednesday.

The woman had forgotten the bag on Saturday and the Vakola police traced the driver of the autorickshaw with the help of CCTV footage and returned the belongings to her within 24 hours, he said.

"The woman, Laxmi Govda (60), had gone to Bengaluru with her son last week. After returning to Mumbai by a bus on Saturday, they took an autorickshaw to go home at Prabhat Colony in Santacruz. On reaching their place, her son took down all the bags from the rickshaw, but forgot her handbag, containing over Rs two lakh, inside the vehicle," police said.

After the incident, the woman approached Vakola police and lodged a complaint.

"After receiving the complaint, a police team went through the footage of the dozens of CCTV cameras installed in the area and zeroed in on a rickshaw," senior inspector Kailash Awhad said.

"Later, we collected information about the rickshaw owner from the RTO. He was identified as Gajdhar Bandh, a resident of Santacruz (W). Within 24 hours, we brought the driver to the police station and recovered over Rs two lakh cash from him and handed it over to the complainant," Awhad said.

The driver was detained and later released, police said.