Mahabubabad: How police traced Rs 2 lakh buried in courtyard of elderly woman’s house

Hyderabad: Many people think that depositing money in a bank is the best way to keep it safe, but not everyone agrees with this idea. A section of people still think that there is a risk of losing money even if they deposit their earnings in the banks.

Rangamma felt banks were not safe for saving money

Thammishetti Rangamma, who lives in Jaggu Thanda of Bayyaram village in Mahabubabad district, felt the same way. Rangamma, a single woman, owns a small kirana store in the village where she sells groceries to earn her livelihood.

Over the years, she saved Rs 2 lakh. Her acquaintances advised her to deposit her earnings in a bank, but she did not agree to it. She was afraid that someone might steal her money from the bank.

Rangamma decided to hide her savings in a secret place and not in a bank as earlier. “I kept Rs 2 lakh cash in a plastic box and buried it in the courtyard of my house. I thought no one would find it there. I went to another town for some work. After returning to my village, I forgot the exact location where the cash was buried and left in sorrow,” Rangamma said.

Elderly woman approaches police to recover stolen amount

The elderly woman said that she was very scared and tormented by the suspicion that some thieves might have taken away all her earnings. With no option left, Rangamma knocked on the doors of Bayyaram police station on January 18 for their support in tracing her money buried in the courtyard of her house.

In her complaint to the police, Rangamma said that her earned money was stolen by thieves. "We were befuddled after going through Rangamma’s complaint and even wondered why the elderly woman buried the money instead of keeping it in the bank. Initially, we inquired with her neighbors and none of them were aware of her money”, Bayyaram, Sub-Inspector G Upendra, told NewsMeter.

Police trace money in Rangamma’s courtyard

The SI said that a team of police personnel visited her house on January 22 and conducted a search of her premises. Cops dug at different places hoping to find the plastic box. “After some frantic digging, we found the plastic box in a heap of mounds in which the money was wrapped carefully in a cloth. The recovered money was handed over to Rangamma in the presence of village elders,” Upendra said.

The SI also advised Rangamma to open a bank account and deposit the money to get interest for the principal amount instead of burying it in the ground. The elderly woman expressed her happiness at getting the money back. She thanked the police for their cooperation and said that she would listen to their advice and deposit the money in the bank.

"It remains to be seen if Rangamma would rather use the traditional approach of hiding the money or create a bank account to avoid the recurrence of such incidents, " Upendra added.