Setting a perfect example of humanity and honesty, an auto-rickshaw driver from Kashimira ensured that a bag with valuables worth more than Rs. 14 lakh left behind in his vehicle was returned to its rightful owner on Sunday.
According to the police, the honest auto-rickshaw driver has been identified as - Iftekhar Ali Nadir Shaikh who had dropped a Gujarat-bound passenger -Nazneen Shaikh at the bus stand on the highway near Hotel Weston in Kashimira on Saturday night. After dropping the passenger, Iftekhar winded up his day’s business and straightaway headed home. The next day he spotted the bag while he had queued up his auto at the CNG-station in Mira Road. Not wasting a minute, he rushed to the Mira Road police station where on-duty personnel directed him to approach the Kashimira police.
“I immediately went to the Kashimira police station and handed over the bag to the on-duty personnel and left. I am relieved to know that the bag has reached its rightful owner. I was destined to do it,” says a visibly humble- Iftekhar.
“Along with other valuables including gold ornaments, the bag contained a couple of mobile phones on the virtue of which we tried to establish contact with the owner. In the meanwhile missing object reports were also scanned and we found a matching complaint which led us to the rightful owner. Our detection team also took efforts to find the lost bag. We are really proud of honest and selfless citizens like Iftekhar,” said API Yogesh Deshmukh.
The woman was in-tears after getting back the bag. It is interesting to note that despite the fact that he has been unable to clear the EMI’s of his auto-rickshaw for the past four months, Iftekhar did not succumb to any kind of greed and did not have a slightest hesitation in returning the bag. “This is not the first time. He has returned laptops and a couple of mobile phones left behind by passengers in the past. Our entire family is proud of him.” said his kin-Shaista Shaikh. The Kashimira police felicitated Iftekhar for his act of honesty.
Sharp contrast
The incident is in sharp contrast to a lost and found case reported from the twin-city last week in which the police had to launch an investigation to trace down an auto-rickshaw driver who had fled to his native place in Uttar Pradesh with a bag containing expensive clothes and gold ornaments worth Rs. 2.5 lakh which was left behind by a passenger.
