J Ramulu was presented with a reward of Rs 10,000.

HYDERABAD: An auto driver played a good Samaritan by returning a bag containing Rs 10 lakh left behind in his three-wheeler to its owners.

Touched by the gesture of honesty displayed by 30-year-old J Ramulu, two brothers, who run a grocery store in Siddipet, presented him with a reward of Rs 10,000.

Ramulu, a tribal from Devarakonda in Nalgonda district, noticed a bag left behind in the passenger seat after dropping off two passengers at Sri Ram Nagar Colony in Gachibowli on Wednesday. “I opened the bag only to see wads of currency notes. I was scared but by that time, I had almost reached Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) in Secunderabad where I operate from. I realised that the two passengers who hired my auto at JBS and got down at Gachibowli had forgotten the bag of cash. I drove non-stop back to Sri Ram Nagar Colony where they had got down from the auto,” Ramulu told TOI.

“I could have enjoyed the amount for two years. But I do not want to lead such a life. So, I returned the cash,” Ramulu added. Ramulu, who has to clear Rs 1.5 lakh loan on his auto, earns a measly Rs 500 per day, his wife works as a labourer to run the home and the couple have two school-going children. They live in a rented house at LB Nagar.

Luckily, the two passengers — K Prasad and his brother K Kishore — were at the same place where Ramulu had dropped them and with them were police personnel looking for the auto. Ramulu handed over the cash to the brothers in the presence of the policemen.

“We run a grocery store in Siddipet and have a small piece of land in Sri Ram Nagar Colony where we are constructing a house. We got Rs 10 lakh for construction work,” Prasad said.

He went on to say, “I suffered a fracture on my leg recently and while getting down from the auto I experienced severe pain. While tending to it, we forgot about the bag and left it behind in the auto we were travelling in.”

A few minutes later, the brothers realised their folly and alerted the cops.

Even as the cops were busy analysing the CCTV footages to identify the auto, Ramulu came back with the cash. “Ramulu’s act shows that there is still honesty in the world,” Prasad said.

Madhapur DCP A Venkateswara Rao lauded Ramulu for his act of honesty.

