Jalgaon man gets back stolen cash in scrapped notes

SURAT: A 42-year-old man from Jalgaon in Maharashtra was in for a surprise when he got a call from police asking him to come to the city and collect from them the cash stolen from him nine months ago.
Altaf Saiyed came to know that the thief who picked his pocket was caught around five months ago, but the police were able to recover the cash from him now only. Saiyed, an electronic goods repairer, had lodged a complaint at Jalgaon railway police station on February 20 saying that Rs 16,200 in cash was stolen from his pocket at Surat railway station.He realized the loss while in train but could lodge the complaint only on reaching his destination.
Saiyed received a call from Government Railway Police of Surat railway station a few days ago. The caller informed him that his stolen cash has been recovered from a pickpocket. Saiyed was told to come on November 16 and remain present in the railway court here. He was handed over Rs 14,000 in cash in an envelope that was recovered from the thief. The envelope contained demonetized Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes.
"I received the money in Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes which I deposited in a bank. They told me that out of total Rs 16,200 stolen from me, the thief had spent some money," Saiyed told TOI over phone from Jalgaon.
"I was surprised that I was getting my stolen money after such a long period. Police told me that the accused was arrested five months ago but they could recover the money from him now," added Saiyed.
"Normally, we hand over the recovered materials to the victims soon after thieves are caught. It shouldn't have taken five months to hand over the cash to the complainant. We are returning demonetized stolen cash to the complainant since we have no arrangement to replace it with new notes," said M N Vaghela, police inspector, Surat railway station.