Maha election officials seize over Rs 500 crores cash, valuables in Assembly polls season

Mumbai, Nov 13 : The Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has said that its vigilance squads have made seizure of more than Rs 500 crores from across the poll-bound state in the past few days.

The CEO, under the Election Commission of India (ECI) directives and SOPs has deployed Static Surveillance Teams (SSTs) and Flying Squads (FS), besides organizing strategic Check Posts during the election season.

The SSTs and others are aimed at keeping a vigil on excessive poll expenses, voter inducement by way of cash- kind offers, movement of arms, liquor or even musclemen.

Against this backdrop, the SSTs have swooped in multiple districts and cities like Mumbai and Pune, intercepting vehicles and recovering in excess of Rs 500 crore so far, said an official here.

The CEO’s revelation came amid the ongoing row that erupted after Shiv Sena (UBT) President and ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray expressed his displeasure at the frisking of his helicopters for two consecutive days – Monday and Tuesday.

He wanted to know why he always appeared to be the ‘first customer’ for the ECI’s protocols and demanded whether the officials have checked the aircraft of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, plus other bigwigs from the ruling side.

As the huge fracas continued, the ECI and state officials said that they carried out similar searches on the aircraft of PM, Shah, Shinde. “Even Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s chopper was frisked yesterday and Fadnavis was subjected to the same treatment last week in Kolhapur,” they said.

The state CEO said that there was no discrimination as alleged in these operations and the SOPs are strictly adhered to by the team comprising ECI officials, a policeman, a revenue official plus other designated officers.

It reiterated that the VIPs or Star Campaigners usually travel by chartered flights or helicopters, but if nothing suspicious is found, the concerned persons are not subjected to any kind of harassment.

However, if anything questionable is recovered including cash, precious metals or alcohol, the CEO teams would proceed as per the laws and take necessary action in the matter.