PRAYAGRAJ Authorities tightened the cordon around a residential property in Baraipur Ramnagar village here on Friday as the excavation for a buried cash cache reportedly worth crores of rupees entered its third consecutive day. The high-profile operation follows the sensational Wednesday night recovery of three blue plastic drums packed with cloth-wrapped bundles of ₹ 500 notes buried beneath the house.
The massive cash haul was uncovered inadvertently during a routine criminal inquiry. The residence has been turned into a virtual fortress, guarded round-the-clock by nearly 32 police personnel drawn from three local police stations. On October 21, a neighbour identified as Abhishek Kumar registered an FIR at the Nawabganj police station accusing Rajesh Yadav and four family members of physical assault.
Piyush Mordia, commissioner of police, Prayagraj, said: “All the cash recovered from the place has been taken to Prayagraj police lines, where the teams of income tax department and bank are counting and examining them. Inside the sealed premises, around a dozen labourers hired on Wednesday night remain at the site as digging continues. On Friday afternoon, a joint team of police and I-T officials departed for Maharashtra to verify leads generated during the brothers’ questioning and to investigate the source of the funds. An additional I-T unit from Lucknow is scheduled to arrive in Prayagraj on Saturday to assist in mapping the financial trail.
Investigators are also preparing to expand the search to adjacent orchards, vacant plots, and other real estate linked to the Yadav family. To aid the manual excavation, officials brought in a dog squad on Friday afternoon and deployed ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to scan for underground anomalies, concealed vaults, or additional caches of cash and valuables.
the Income Tax (I-T) Department formally took control of the site and the investigation on Thursday evening While the exact valuation of the seized currency remains tightly guarded. Brothers Rakesh Yadav, alias ‘Mahakal’, and Rajesh Yadav, the owners of the property in the Ganga Nagar zone, have been handed over to tax officials for sustained interrogation.
“We have also handed over brothers Rakesh Yadav and Rajesh Yadav to the I-T department for further investigation,” Kumar added.
