Futures & Commodities

Gold bars found in lockers at Indian school

Staff members at a school in India have unearthed a secret hoard of gold and cash worth nearly $260,000, according to local media reports.

On Saturday, workers were cleaning the Kendriya Vidyalaya School near the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, around 180 miles north of Mumbai. The staff found the stash in unused lockers which the school claims have not been used for two or three years.

One of the lockers contained 10 million Indian rupees ($162,000) in cash and another had more than 2kg of gold bars, which police said were solid gold and worth nearly 6 million ($97,000) Indian rupees.


Junko Kimura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Broadcaster NDTV reported that the lockers were allotted to teaching and non-teaching staff, however no one yet has come forward to claim the loot.

Local police station inspector K K Desai told The Times of India that some of the bank notes were new, but the majority were old.

"To determine the period when the valuables were kept is important to trace the person who might have kept them in the lockers," he told the Indian newspaper.

"We have sought the details of the teachers and school staff who had access to the said lockers in the past five to six years. We are also questioning the staff to ascertain whether they had seen any member bringing in the purse or suitcase in which the money was found."

Staff had decided to clean the school as of part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Clean India" campaign, which seeks to improve sanitation and hygiene throughout the country.