Air India Crash: Where the plane crashed, a person found 70 tolas of gold jewellery and 50 thousand cash, then took this decision

Rajesh Patel, who was among the first to join the rescue operation after the June 12 plane crash in Ahmedabad, returned to the site soon after leaving the bodies and several injured to ambulances and began searching through the smoldering debris.

Rajesh Patel, 57, said he collected about 70 tolas of gold jewellery, Rs 50,000 and some US dollars from the site of the deadly plane crash and handed them over to the police. Patel, who lives just 300 metres from the crash site, boarded an ambulance of a private hospital run by his relative in the city’s Shahibaug area when he heard a loud explosion and saw a fireball rising into the sky.

Patel, who is in the construction business, said, “When I got information about the plane crash in the hostel premises of BJ Medical College, I rushed there hoping to rescue as many people as possible. However, we could not reach close to the site for the first 15 to 20 minutes. After controlling the fire, we started the rescue operation.

Started saving people’s belongings

Patel and other volunteers did not have any ‘stretcher’, so they used old saris, sheets and sacks to carry the dead bodies and injured to the ambulance. After the rescue operation was completed, Patel started saving the luggage and other material of the people on board the Air India plane.

Patel said, “From 10 to 15 burnt and scattered handbags, we recovered 70 tolas of gold jewellery, eight to 10 silver items, some passports, a copy of Bhagavad Gita, Rs 50 thousand in cash and 20 dollars. We handed them over to a police officer monitoring the rescue operation.”

Will return the valuables to the relatives of the passengers

According to Inspector DB Basia of Meghni Nagar police station, one of his teams has been assigned the task of preparing a detailed list of every valuable item and goods recovered from the accident site. Basia said, “Once the list is ready, we will coordinate with Air India and after verification, start the process of handing over the valuables and other items to the relatives of the passengers. As of now, we do not have any exact number of items or their value.” Gujarat Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghvi had announced on June 16 that every item found from the plane wreckage would be returned. The minister said, “Four to five tola gold jewellery recovered from the body of Veenaben Agheda was carefully traced and returned to her family. Its value was around Rs 4.5 lakh.”