Written by Manish SahuLucknow | November 8, 2025 07:29 PM IST 3 min readOfficers said Madhav was carrying a first-class ticket for the Vaishali Express and initially refused to open his bag, claiming it belonged to a senior government official. (File photo)Cash amounting to nearly Rs 1 crore was recovered on Friday from a 32-year-old trader at the Gorakhpur railway station when he was waiting to board a Bihar-bound train, the Government Railway Police (GRP) said.The trader, identified as Mukund Madhav of Mokama in Bihar, was stopped during a routine check after his behaviour was found to be suspicious.Circle Officer (GRP) Vinod Kumar said Madhav’s answers on the source of the money and to whom it was to be delivered were inconsistent. “We informed the Income Tax Department and they are questioning him to verify the source of the cash,” Vinod Kumar told The Indian Express.Officers said Madhav was carrying a first-class ticket for the Vaishali Express and initially refused to open his bag, claiming it belonged to a senior government official.When the bag was opened, Rs 99.09 lakh was found in it in bundles of Rs 500 notes, they said.Gorakhpur Railway Station House Officer (SHO) Anuj Kumar Singh said Madhav first claimed that an IAS officer had handed him the money to keep it, an assertion found to be false in the preliminary inquiry.Madhav later said he runs a bookstall in Mokama and does small-time construction work.Story continues below this adHe claimed that the seized money belonged to him and that he had earlier given it to an acquaintance, who later asked him to collect it from another associate based in Gorakhpur, the SHO said.Madhav further told them that after reaching Gorakhpur, he met a man in the Bargadwa area who arrived on a motorcycle with his face covered, the police said. The unidentified man handed him the bag containing the cash, following which he headed to the railway station, they said quoting Madhav.The investigators did not rule out the possibility of the money being transported for election-related activities.Railway police officials also pointed to a recent pattern of large cash seizures at railway stations on routes linking Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.Story continues below this adSince July, the GRP has recovered more than Rs 5.29 crore in nine incidents at railway stations including Ballia, Varanasi, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction and Gorakhpur.Rs 1.80 crore in cash was recovered at Ballia on July 22.Mokama has been in the news recently after the arrest of former MLA Anant Singh in a case.They have recorded an entry of the cash and are coordinating with income-tax and financial-crime wings for a detailed inquiry, the GRP said.Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:BiharUttar Pradesh