Chandigarh, Jan 8 (IANS): The Punjab Police on Tuesday recovered around Rs 3 crore in cash from an SUV in the state's Mansa district.

The money was being carried by a couple, Nirmal Singh and Sukhchain Kaur, who hail from Sirsa district in neighbouring Haryana, police said.

Mansa district police chief Mandhir Singh said the cash was recovered from the SUV during special checking being done near the bus stand in Mansa.

The cash was in notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 denomination.

The police chief said that when questioned, the couple could not give satisfactory answers as to why they were carrying so much cash.

He said the income tax department had been informed about the recovery.

The police is on alert in Haryana and some parts of Punjab as the judgement of a CBI court into the murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, in which controversial Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim is an accused, is likely to come on Friday (January 11).