Scrap dealer returns gold junked during cleaning | India News
GURGAON: Haji Akhtar Khan took a knee and chose honesty. And the Sharmas got their Diwali gift, six months late.Khan, a scrap dealer from Faridabad, returned around 100 grams of gold jewelery worth around Rs 15 lakh to the family which was mistakenly sold with household waste before Diwali.Electrician Ashok Sharma’s family realized the ornaments had gone missing during preparations for Lakshmi Puja in October last year. The jewellery, mostly bangles and earrings, were put in a small box and kept in a sack at home before the family left for the Kumbh Mela in January. It was an attempt to protect valuables from theft During the pre-Diwali cleaning, however, the sack was mistakenly thrown away and sold as scrap.Abarjana Gale Khan (60).
From scrap to rightful owner
Khan has been running a scrap business on Agra Canal Road since 1992.Suspecting that the baby had been inadvertently thrown out with the bathwater, Sharma visited Khan two to three times over the following months to find out, but he returned empty-handed.Recalling what happened, Khan said Sharma had come to his shop about two months before Diwali to sell some scraps. “He comes in his car while cleaning the house and sells scraps,” Khan said.When the family returned almost two months later, Khan said he had not saved the old CCTV footage of his shop. “If they had contacted within 20 to 30 days of selling the scrap, we could have checked the cameras. When they came to us, we deleted the footage,” he added.The turning point came earlier this week when Khan, rummaging through scraps in his shop, noticed a plastic packet. “One might have mistaken it for brass. But I had my doubts,” he said.Khan got the packet checked by a jeweller. “He confirmed that it was gold – 22 carat – about 100 grams. I was sure it belonged to Sharma ji and no one else. So, it has to be returned. We earn through hard work and cannot keep someone else’s property. My family also agreed with me.” The scrap dealer takes the jewelery to the police station to ensure proper handover.
