Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday told the House that a wad of cash had “apparently” been recovered from the seat allotted to Abhishek Manu Singhvi, setting off an uproar and prompting the Congress member to suggest it had been planted.

“I hereby inform that during the routine anti-sabotage check of the chamber after the adjournment of the House yesterday (Thursday), apparently a wad of currency notes was recovered by the security officials from seat number 222, presently allotted to Shri Abhishek Manu Singhvi, elected from the state of Telangana,” Dhankhar told the members after the House sat in the morning.

“The matter was brought to my notice. I felt (it) expedient as per practice and ordainment to ensure that investigation takes place in accordance with law and the same is under way.”

Singhvi, who was not in the House when the matter was raised, described the incident as “bizarre” and said he had been “astonished” to hear of it.

He suggested that either barbed wire be put around every seat or a glass enclosure built to ensure that MPs locked their seat before going home to prevent anyone from planting “ganja” or currency notes in their absence.

Dhankhar said there were apparently 100 notes of ₹500 denomination. “It was my duty and I am obliged to inform the House. When it was brought to my notice I thought someone would come to reclaim it. No one came to reclaim it,” he said.

Singhvi said in a post on X that he carries a single ₹500 note when he goes to the
Rajya Sabha.

He said he had spent three minutes inside the House on Thursday, entering at 12.57pm and leaving after the House was adjourned at 1pm. From 1pm to 1.30pm, he said, he had had lunch with YSRCP member Ayodhya Rami Reddy at the Parliament
canteen, Sangam.

“So my stay in the House was for three minutes and my stay in the canteen was for 30 minutes. I find it bizarre that even for such issues, politics is raised. Of course, there must be an inquiry into how people can come, put anything anywhere and on any seat,” Singhvi told reporters.

“If it was not tragic and serious, it would be comic. I think everybody should cooperate in getting to the bottom of this. If there is (some) failing (on the part of the) security agencies, that must be completely exposed.”

Earlier, BJP members had begun protesting and shouting slogans as soon as Dhankhar made the revelation.

Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said the Chairman should not have named the member until the investigation had been completed.

DMK member Tiruchi Siva objected to the Treasury benches’ continuing protests and said the House should be allowed to function since the matter had been raised and an investigation was on.

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal said that going by Kharge’s comments, matters under investigation by any agency or matters that were before a court should not be raised in Parliament.

He did not elaborate but his comment appeared an allusion to the Congress raising in Parliament the US bribery charges against the Adani group.

Kharge clarified that all he wanted to say was that the member should not have been named, and that he had full faith in the investigation by the Chairman.

Dhankhar said he was not personally investigating the matter.

Leader of the House J.P. Nadda said the incident had dented the Rajya Sabha’s dignity. “The incident should be condemned by all aides. You (Opposition parties) should not try to bury some issues and raise other issues,” he said.

The Rajya Sabha discussed the matter for about half an hour during the morning session. The House functioned normally after that till lunch. But no business was conducted in the post-lunch session, with BJP members demanding a reply from the Opposition on the cash controversy.

Singhvi said that engaging in politics on every issue “shows our system in bad light”, that everything in the House should not lead to “cheap tactics”, and that an allegation war “demeans our level”.

Wads of note had earlier made an appearance in Parliament during the trust vote of July 2008, held after the Left withdrew support to the Manmohan Singh government over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Some BJP members had waved bundles of cash in the Lok Sabha alleging they had been offered bribes to vote for the government. Nothing was eventually proved.