Suryakant Bhanudas Kalokhe had hired Garud’s auto near Sahyadri Hospital on Karve Road to go to Inlaks Budhrani Hospital in Koregaon Park around 10am on Monday.
In an exemplary act of honesty, autorickshaw driver Vitthal Garud returned a bag containing Rs57,000 to its owner who forgot it in his vehicle.
Suryakant Bhanudas Kalokhe had hired Garud’s auto near Sahyadri Hospital on Karve Road to go to Inlaks Budhrani Hospital in Koregaon Park around 10am on Monday. His son Shubhankar and nephew Amol Jagdane accompanied him.
The driver dropped the trio at the hospital around 11.37am.
Speaking to DNA, Kalokhe, a physics professor at an Ahmednagar-based college said, “As soon as he dropped us at the hospital, we realised that the bag containing the cash was left behind in the auto. Amol tried to chase the auto but in vain.”
Kalokhe was carrying the money as he was taking his son to Inlaks Budhrani for further tests, after treating him for brain ailment at Sahyadri Hospital. Garud came to know about the bag only in the afternoon.
“I noticed the bag after hearing some strange sound coming from the auto’s back seat. I could not recall the passenger who had left it,” he said. Even though he was deeply concerned about the problems that the bag’s owner must be facing, Garud could not locate him even on Tuesday.
However, while dropping a passenger on Karve Road near Sahyadri Hospital on Wednesday morning, it struck Garud that Kalokhe had hired his vehicle from the same area on Monday. “So I visited the hospital hoping to find him,” he said.
As soon as he entered the hospital premises, Kalokhe’s nephew rushed to him inquiring about the bag. “Your bag is still lying where you had left it,” Garud told Anmol, who hugged him. “I couldn’t control my tears,” said Garud.
Speaking to DNA, Kalokhe said, “It is impossible to find such an honest person nowadays. We will never forget his gesture. He is god to us.”
Declining the Rs1,000 that the professor gave him as a reward, Garud said that it was his duty. The father of two sons, Garud resides in Sadashiv Peth and has been driving autorickshaws for 30 years.
“I have been ferrying schoolgirls of Ahilyadevi High School for 20 years. Some of the ex-students still visit my house. I am proud of my work,” he said.
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