India, Sept. 12 -- A contract worker, earning around Rs.11,000 a month has emerged key to the investigation of counterfeit currency of Rs.17.29 crore recovered from a Punjab National Bank (PNB) currency chest in Saharanpur, according to a police officer familiar with the probe.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is examining the worker's assets, financial transactions and proximity to the currency chest manager who has already been suspended by the bank.

The worker, employed as a driver-loader at the currency chest, may be the effective owner of five houses, an SUV, a sedan and two motorcycles, the officer added. Investigators are examining when these assets were acquired, in whose names they were registered, and the source of fund...