Gurgaon: Haji Akhtar Khan chose honesty over windfall. The Sharma family received their Diwali gift six months late.Khan, a scrap dealer in Faridabad, returned nearly 100 grams of gold ornaments worth about Rs 15 lakh to his family, which were accidentally sold along with household waste before Diwali.In October last year, the family of Ashok Sharma, an electrician, discovered that the decorations were missing while preparing for Lakshmi Puja. The jewellery, mainly bracelets and earrings, were placed in a small box and placed in a bag at home before the family left for the Kumbh Mela in January. This is to prevent valuables from being stolen. However, during routine cleaning before Diwali, the sack was mistakenly thrown away and sold as scrap.The garbage was given to the Khan (60).
From scrap to rightful owner
Khan has been running a scrap business since 1992 on Canal Road in Agra.Suspecting that the baby had accidentally been thrown out with the bathwater, Sharma visited Khan two or three times over the next few months to ask if he had found anything, but came up empty-handed.Recalling what happened, Khan said Sharma came to his shop two months before Diwali to sell some scrap products. “He used his car to sell scraps while he was cleaning houses,” Khan said.When the family returned about two months later, Khan said he had not saved such old CCTV footage from the shop. “If they approach within 20 to 30 days of the scrap sale, we can check the cameras. We have deleted the footage by the time they approach us,” he added.The turning point came earlier this week when Khan noticed a plastic bag while sifting through scrap in his shop. “Someone might have thought it was brass and left it there. But I have my doubts,” he said.Khan asked the jeweler to inspect the package. “He confirmed that it was gold – 22 carats – about 100 grams. I was sure that it belonged to Sharma ji and no one else. So, it has to be returned. We make money through hard work and cannot take possession of other people’s property. My family also agreed with me.” The scrap dealer took the jewelery to the police station to ensure proper handover.
