Jammu, Sep 7 (IANS): In a joint operation on Tuesday, police and the army recovered over Rs 1.64 crore from the bags belonging to an absconding criminal in J&K's Rajouri district.

Defence Ministry spokesman, Lt Col Devender Anand, said: "Based on credible inputs, district police, Rajouri, and the Indian Army launched a search operation at village Saryah on Tuesday."

"During the search, two bags were detected from which currency notes amounting to INR 1,64,70,600 were recovered.

"On enquiry, it was found that the bags belonged to Manzoor Ahmad, son of Gulzar Hussain, resident of Saryah village, who is presently evading arrest."

Ahmed is related to Sikandar, of Saryah village who was recently arrested by a joint team of Punjab Police and local police in FIR no 164/2021 of police station Kathu Nangal (Punjab), he added.

"The amount was seized in the presence of a magistrate. An FIR has been lodged in police station Nowshera and investigation has been taken up. Further arrests expected," Anand said.