The Haul at Deucha Village: Cash, Gold Bars, and an Arrest
Police in Birbhum district, West Bengal, arrested Minar Mondal – the manager and brother-in-law of absconding stone trader Tullu Mondal – after a night-long search of his two-storey residence in Deucha village yielded ₹28.5 crore in cash and 15 kilograms of gold. The recovered gold comprised 14 bars of one kilogram each and ten 100-gram biscuits, valued at around ₹21.5 crore at current market rates.
The operation, supported by central forces, involved five cash-counting machines and several weighing scales to tally the notes and precious metal. The cash was later transported in sealed metal trunks to Mohammad Bazar police station and is likely to be deposited in a bank. Minar Mondal was initially detained along with his son on Wednesday and formally arrested on Thursday; he is expected to be produced before a local court. Tullu Mondal has been on the run since assembly election results were declared in May.
Birbhum’s Superintendent of Police, VR Bhundesh, confirmed the seizure and said the house had been sealed. The police suspect a large portion of the money represents revenue allegedly siphoned from the state’s stone quarrying sector rather than being deposited in government coffers, and the investigation is now tracing the source of the funds and any collusion within the alleged racket.
Context and Political Reactions
The scale of the recovery – one of the biggest in recent Bengal history – has intensified a political debate over the sand and stone mining mafia. West Bengal’s Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, characterised the operation as a major crackdown on organised crime linked to illegal mining and restated his government’s “zero tolerance” policy against corruption. He claimed that intensified enforcement since the BJP assumed office had already boosted revenue collections from Birbhum’s stone quarrying sector. The Trinamool Congress, through spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, responded that while the accused must face the law, the government should also investigate political figures who allegedly protected such activities in the past.
From a law-enforcement perspective, the seizure highlights the challenge of unearthing illicit assets in the natural resources economy, where cash transactions and informal networks often bypass regulatory oversight. The use of multiple counting machines and the physical volume of cash also underline the practical hurdles authorities face during such operations. The arrest of an insider like Minar Mondal is expected to provide investigators with details about the money trail, potential beneficiaries, and the full architecture of the alleged siphoning operation. However, whether this leads to a systematic cleanup or remains a one-off seizure will depend on sustained investigation and the capacity to track cross-border or benami financial structures.
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