Chandigarh: Showing that honesty is still alive, a Faridabad scrap dealer recently returned 100 grams of gold jewellery worth about 15 lakh to its rightful owner who had accidently sold it for a pittance along with other junk material during the Diwali clean-up last year.
It so happened when one Ashok Sharma, a resident of sector 3, Ballabhgarh town in Faridabad, sold the gold jewellery as scrap to a scrap dealer (called ``Kabari'' in Hindi); though he approached the latter on realising the mistake, the latter could not locate it then; however, when he found it later, he returned the same. It was formally handed over at the office of assistant commissioner of police, Ballabhgarh, Jitesh Malhotra on Thursday last.
According to Sharma, his family had kept the said gold items in a box and placed it inside a sack full of junk items so as to save it from theft as the family was to go for Kumbh fair in January last year.
However, back from Prayagraj, the family itself mistook all the items placed inside the sack as junk during the festival of Diwali later that year and mistakenly sold the same to a scrap dealer for a pittance, only to realise later that the jewellery box too had been sold along with the scrap items following which Sharma approached the scrap dealer, Haji Akhtar Khan, popularly known as Khan Sahab, who operated from the Agra canal area, and explained the mistake. Even though Khan tried to locate the same, it could not be found and Sharma returned home disappointed.
However, Khan while sorting various scrap items in his godown finally found the jewellery items wrapped and placed in a box, he first got it confirmed its authenticity with a goldsmith and later informed the police about the entire episode following which the same was returned to Sharma Thursday last.
Also Watch:
``Since Sharma had approached me about the missing jewellery, I felt it was my responsibility to return it and my family also supported this decision and I informed the police'', Khan said.
Praising Khan’s honesty, ACP Malhotra also said that this incident showed that honesty was still alive and he appealed to the people to be careful with the valuables.
