Three Rag pickers return jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh found in trash dump

Nashik: A garbage collector  Gangubai Asruba Ghode (55) and her daughters Mukta Ghode and Sunita returned a plastic box packed with gold and silver ornaments worth Rs 5 lakh to a family that had mistakenly placed it in a garbage bin then threw it at a garbage dump.

The duo was felicitated by the police on Friday, while the grateful family, which had lost the ornaments, gave the garbage pickers cash worth Rs 10,000 as a gift.

The box contained 20 items in gold weighing 135 grams and 22 items in silver weighing 347 grams total cost approximate Rs 5,00,000. Sources said that housewife Sarita Dalvi of Pathardi Phata area in Nashik city had put the ornaments in a plastic box to deposit them in a bank locker during Diwali.

However, in her hurry, she kept the box near the garbage bin. Her husband Sharad Dalvi put the garbage including the box in a sack and threw it in the corner of a garbage depot located in Vilholi.