Bhubaneswar, Aug 10 (IANS): The Excise officials of Odisha have seized gold biscuits weighing 2.2 kg along with Rs 1.22 crore cash during a search operation for smuggling of ganja in Berhampur town of Ganjam district, a police official said on Wednesday.

During a routine search operation on Tuesday evening, the Excise officials found Rs 1.22 crore cash from a person at Lanjipalli under Baidyanathpur police. They immediately seized the cash and reported to the local police station, said Berhampur SP, Saravana Vivek M.

As the suspect was unable to give satisfactory answers about the huge amount of cash, the police conducted further investigation and recovered 20 gold biscuits weighing 2.2 kg from Anand Jewellers, he said.

The SP said two persons Dasrath Soukal of Maharashtra who was found with the cash and the jewellery shop owner Anand Subudhi have been detained in connection with this case.

"We have informed the Income Tax department about the seizure. We will hand over the cash and the detained persons to them for further investigation," he added.

According to sources, Dasrath was returning to Maharashtra after selling gold biscuits to the gold trader in Berhampur.