Mumbai, May 31 : A senior citizen couple's joy knew no bounds when the Railway Protection Force (RPF) officials helped recover the woman's purse, containing cash and jewellery worth over Rs 17 lakh, which she had inadvertently forgotten at the parking of the busy Bandra Terminus on Friday.

Hansa Joishar, 71, along with her husband Himmatlal Joishar, alighted from the Kutch Express at Mumbai's Bandra Terminus as they returned from a short pilgrimage to Bhuj.

They trudged out with their luggage to the open parking area in the blistering summer heat. While there were no cabs available to take them home to Neelam Nagar in Mulund, the couple's son Kushal Joishar had sent a regular cabby to pick them up.

The driver helped the senior couple put the luggage in the taxi boot, but near Sion, Himmatlal Joishar felt thirsty and asked the cabby to stop briefly so he could get his water bottle kept in the trunk. When the couple opened the boot and took out the bottle, Hansa was stunned to discover that her purse with cash, gold and diamonds, was missing.

Her equally shaken husband suspected that she could have forgotten it on the train, but the shocked woman insisted that it was there with her all the time.

"Considering it as a goner, we still decided to go back and check if we could somehow recover it' Even the driver was rattled as he felt the blame could fall on him, and immediately offered to take us back to Bandra Terminus," Hansa Joishar told IANS.

Meanwhile, RPF woman constable Janabai happened to spot the purse, apparently abandoned in the parking lot with nobody around. She gingerly picked it up and took it to her senior, Sub Inspector Arjun Singh.

The two carefully opened the bag and were stunned as out flowed Rs 1,21,210 in cash, plus gold and diamond bangles, necklaces, rings and other jewellery, totally worth ' as the Hansa Joishar informed later ' a staggering Rs 17,71,210. There was a chit with the phone number of Kushal Joishar, whom the police called and he provided his mother's number, after which the police contacted her just as they were returning to Bandra Terminus.

The Joishars reached the RPF office, where the police confirmed and cross-checked all the items, the elderly couple's train journey and all other aspects, and after fully satisfying themselves, handed over the bag with its valuables to the much-relieved couple. "This is a divine blessing in a city like Mumbai' We are pleased to know that there are good police personnel and honest citizens as my purse could have disappeared in no time. We are extremely thankful to the RPF and God for saving our day," said the overwhelmed Hansa.

A similar incident happened a couple of years ago to retired lecturer Ramila Desai of Vile Parle's N.M. College, as reported by IANS on November 2, 2022. She had gone with friends to celebrate her birthday over lunch at a restaurant in Dadar West and dropped her gold bracelet worth over Rs 1.50 lakh somewhere. The birthday feast ruined, Desai and her friends left to start a frantic search for the lost ornament and finally found it after over five hours - still on the pavement where it had fallen off.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in )

/IANS