NAVI MUMBAI: In an exemplary show of honesty, a 28-year-old auto rickshaw driver returned a woman passenger’s bag containing gold ornaments worth Rs 16 lakhs, that she had accidentally left behind in his vehicle on Thursday. The honest autorickshaw driver has been identified as Santosh Shirke, a resident of Ghansoli.API Ravindra Narote of Vashi informed that, the woman passenger’s son Santosh Motilag, who resides in Ghansoli had gone to Vashi railway station to receive her as she had returned from Kashi pilgrimage with a group of devotees. The mother-son duo sat in Shirke’s auto rickshaw outside Vashi station. They alighted at Juhugaon, as the woman resides there. After her son dropped her home, they found one bag containing gold and clothes was left behind in the auto. Hence, the woman’s son told his friend, who is an auto driver, about the lost valuable. His friend posted the message on the whatsApp group of auto rickshaw drivers, when it was learnt that the auto driver Shirke had already deposited the lost bag of gold ornaments at the Autorickshaw union office near Vashi railway station. Hence, the woman’s son reached the union office and they brought the bag to Vashi police station, where the auto driver identified the passenger Motilag and the valuables were handed over to him as the rightful owner.API Narote said, “Motilag was short of words to praise Shirke for his honesty. He offered to reward Shirke in cash as the gold ornaments weighing 120 grams was worth Rs 16 lakhs and it was his hard earned savings, but Shirke told that he only did his duty as a responsible citizen, thus proving that he has a heart of gold as he superseded greed over moral values. Auto driver Shirke was felicitated at the police station for honesty.“