Kolkata, Feb 9 (IANS): A joint team of Kolkata police's Anti-Rowdy Squad (ARS) and Special Task Force (STF) on Thursday recovered a huge amount of cash from a vehicle at the busy Gariahat crossing in south Kolkata, officials said.

The counting of notes at a local police station is currently on in the local police stations and initial estimates have revealed the recovered cash will be nothing less than Rs 1 crore if not more.

Vehicle driver Dulal Roy and passenger Mukesh Saraswat have been detained by the police for questioning. It is learnt that being tipped off by their sources that huge amount of cash was being carried in a vehicle, the joint team of ARS and STF tracked the vehicle and stopped it on Thursday evening at Gariahat crossing. From the vehicle's boot, they recovered a bag from where the cash was recovered.

City police sources said that after preliminary investigation it seems that this unaccounted money has some hawala trading connection. It is learnt that although Saraswat has a residence at Jamunalal Bajaj Street in north Kolkata, he hails from Rajasthan, while Roy is a resident of Belgachia area in the northern outskirts of Kolkata.

On Wednesday evening, sleuths of Enforcement Directorate (ED) recovered Rs 1.40 crore from the office of a Kolkata-based business, and claimed that this amount is a part of the proceeds of the multi-crore coal smuggling scam.