T-Elections: Cash seizure crosses Rs. 100 crore

The cash being seized by the Flying Squads under supervision of Election Commission of India, Joint teams by various departments (Static Surveillance Teams) and the police is crossed Rs. 100 crore mark on Wednesday. As per the statistics issued by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mr. Rajat Kumar, till Tuesday, the teams seized illegal transportation of property of worth Rs. 104.41 crore of which Rs. 87.98 crore is in the form of liquid cash, gold ornaments of worth Rs. 7.52 crore and liquor of worth Rs. 8.86 crore excluding the seizure of Rs. 26.1 lakh and another Rs. 1 crore unearthed by the Income Tax sleuths from Kodangal and Hyderabad’s old city on Wednesday.

The ‘Telugu 360’ has already published a story on how candidates from various parties spending expenditure up to Rs. 10 crore and above in few key assembly segments. In few prestigious segments to all the parties, the candidates are spending up to Rs. 50 crore by selling out their properties.

In order to prevent the practices of politicians, the ECI has deployed special teams by establishing additional check-posts at all the National and State Highways apart from other internal and outer ring roads. Few politicians are adopting ‘Escort’ methods to avoid police checking and an exclusive story on it was published in ‘Telugu 360’ recently. Sources said that they are offering Rs. 2,000 per vote and presenting gifts like LED TV sets, Pressure Cookers, Gold ornaments in cases of three or more votes from single family.

Hyderabad, the Hawala hub

The politicians at the GHMC limits and from Rangareddy and Medchal districts are adopting Hawala and Hundi operators to transport cash for the distribution to voters. On November 21, the Hyderabasd Task Force nabbed Rs. 97 lakh from Mahankali area in Secunderabad and on 24th they seized Rs. 20 lakh near Panjagutta Central from Hawala transporters.

RTC Buses and Two-wheelers

Money transporters in rural areas are transporting cash in RTC Buses and Two-wheelers to avoid police checks. Based on the inputs given by the EC, the special teams had begun the checking in even RTC Buses and motor-cycles from November 15.

Income Tax raids

Besides the special teams established by the EC, the I-T is also become active in searches, surveys and raids in connection with ‘Election Money’. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has already directed all the banks to provide the details of transaction more than Rs. 10 lakh, Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh and above Rs. 50 lakh in separate format. Based on the reports being submitted by the banks at the end of the day, the CBDT is passing the information to the Central Investigation Unit (CIU) existed in Aykar Bhavan in Hyderabad city. Following the inputs, the I-T sleuths are conducting raids and surveys.