Massive Seizure: ₹28.5 Crore Cash and 15 Kg Gold Found in Retired Bus Driver’s Birbhum Home

KOLKATA — In what is being described as one of the most substantial cash and gold hauls in West Bengal’s recent history, state police unearthed an astonishing ₹28.5 crore in cash and 15 kilograms of solid gold from the residence of a retired government bus driver in the Birbhum district.

The recovery, which concluded on Wednesday evening, July 29, 2026, has sent shockwaves through the local political and administrative corridors, as the staggering accumulation of wealth points to deep-rooted illegal mining syndicates operating in the region.

The raid was conducted at a two-story residence in Deucha village, located under the Mohammad Bazar police station jurisdiction. The property is owned by Minar Mondal, a man who, until his voluntary retirement in 2017, lived an ostensibly modest life working as a driver for the North Bengal State Transport Corporation, drawing a monthly pension of approximately ₹35,000.

However, investigators believe Minar Mondal’s residence was being utilized as a covert “safe house” for storing colossal amounts of black money and smuggled bullion. The primary suspect behind this amassed wealth is not the driver himself, but his brother-in-law, Tulu Mondal (also known as Mohd Nazibuddin).

Tulu Mondal is a notorious and highly influential stone and sand trader in the Birbhum district. According to local law enforcement, Tulu had previously served as a prominent stone revenue collector during the tenure of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government. Following Minar’s retirement, he was allegedly assigned the critical task of collecting “revenue” from trucks heavily laden with illegally quarried stones passing through one of the seven toll gates in the Deucha quarry belt.

Senior police officials suspect that the seized cash represents a massive siphoning of public funds meant for the government coffers, generated through a sprawling illegal stone and sand mining syndicate.

The sheer scale of the recovery was reminiscent of the 2022 raids on properties linked to former State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, where ₹50 crore was found. At Minar Mondal’s Deucha residence, the search operation stretched for an exhausting 20 hours.

Upon breaking into the premises, police officials were greeted by an unbelievable sight: two large almirahs packed to the brim with neatly arranged bundles of currency notes. Alongside the cash were heavy gold bars and solid gold biscuits. To process the haul, investigators were forced to requisition five currency counting machines and several precision gold-weighing scales. The gold alone is estimated to be worth around ₹21.5 crore at current market prices, bringing the total value of the seized assets to a staggering ₹50 crore.

Minar Mondal has been placed under arrest and is currently undergoing intense interrogation alongside his son. During preliminary questioning, Minar allegedly confessed that the money and bullion belonged to his brother-in-law, Tulu, who had stashed them there to avoid detection by federal agencies.

Tulu Mondal’s profile is fraught with controversy. He was previously considered a close confidant and associate of Anubrata Mondal, the once-feared TMC strongman of Birbhum district who himself spent over two years in Delhi’s Tihar jail as a prime accused in a massive cross-border cattle smuggling case.

Tulu has been a person of interest for federal agencies for years. In 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided his home and offices. Less than 48 hours later, district police arrested him in connection with a local murder case. Though later released on bail, Tulu has been absconding since May 2026, shortly after the state assembly poll results were announced. Despite his fugitive status, Tulu had made headlines in December 2024 when he hosted an outrageously extravagant wedding reception for his daughter at a venue styled after Udaipur’s Taj Lake Palace, a deeply ironic display of wealth for a man ostensibly running local toll booths.

The massive seizure has predictably ignited a fierce political firestorm in West Bengal. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who recently assumed office promising a crackdown on corruption, immediately seized upon the raid as a victory for his administration’s “Zero Tolerance Policy.”

Taking to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Adhikari congratulated the state police while the cash was still being counted. “Let it be unequivocally clear: no person with a chequered past who has amassed wealth through the exploitation of public resources and hobnobbing with the then ruling political party will be spared,” Adhikari declared, making a thinly veiled reference to the previous TMC government. “Public wealth belongs to the people, and those who loot it will face the full might of the law. Vigilance and uncompromising action will continue. Crackdown on mafia syndicates will go on.”

Adhikari further alleged that during the previous administration’s rule, the official state revenue from Birbhum’s stone quarries hovered around ₹110 crore annually, while the actual, illicit collection by syndicates exceeded ₹1,200 crore.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC), currently dealing with internal rifts and the fallout of Anubrata Mondal’s recent defection to a rebel faction, has adopted a cautious stance. Kunal Ghosh, a spokesperson for the TMC faction loyal to Mamata Banerjee, acknowledged the severity of the crime and demanded thorough action. However, Ghosh urged investigators to cast a wider net, suggesting that the true beneficiaries of this illegal wealth might include politicians who have recently switched allegiances. “I hear that those responsible for such crimes were closely linked to netas who now brand themselves as ‘good TMC members’,” Ghosh remarked, advocating for a deeper probe to identify all who shielded these syndicates.

As the police continue their investigation to determine if the Mondal family has stashed illicit wealth in other hidden locations, the sleepy village of Deucha remains cordoned off. The unearthing of this “treasure trove” from a humble pensioner’s home stands as a glaring testament to the scale of illegal mining operations that have plagued the Birbhum district for years.