Silver jewellery weighing 243 kilograms worth Rs 75 lakh as well as cash of Rs 46.50 lakh was seized by police in two separate cases on Saturday.
In the first case, police made seizure of jewellery and is interrogating three persons while in the second case, two persons have been detained for questioning.
The seizures come within days of Poll Model Code of Conduct enforced in the State.
During search operation, two persons were taken into custody by police after the car in which they were travelling contained Rs 46.50 lakh in cash. The cash was seized near Bharatmata Square. The Income Tax Department team reached the spot and is investigating.
As per police, one of the youth named Mukesh Singh who was held, hails from Kachna near Raipur. During preliminary interrogation, the accused stated that he is Manager of a rolling mill and has collected the money from the market and was going to his temporary residence at Kachna to later deposit the money next day with factory office.
Police said that Mukesh claimed to be resident of Bihar. The other youth held is the driver who hails from Mungeli district as vehicle was found registered in Bilaspur.
City ASP Prafulla Thakur said that police is further interrogating the youth. IT team is also conducting further investigation.
In another seizure made, Bhilai police at Kumhari Toll Plaza seized a car and arrested three persons and seized 243 kilograms of silver ornaments. The cost of items is around Rs 75 lakh.
As per information received from police, the items seized is from one jeweller based in Nahata Market, Raipur. The car had 16 bags of silver ornaments which were being taken to Rajnandgaon for sale.
Kumhari Town Inspector Yogita Khaparde said that one car had the cache of silver items . At present police has made the seizure and is further interrogating the persons taken into custody.