NEW DELHI: The value of poll-related seizures in Maharashtra and Jharkhand as well in the ongoing bypolls have breached the Rs 1,000-crore mark this time.
EC on Monday shared that the combined seizures in Maharashtra and Jharkhand — at Rs 858 crore — were valued at almost seven times the seizures made during 2019 polls.
With the campaign having concluded on Monday, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar directed all the enforcement agencies working under EC’s supervision to be extra vigilant over the next couple of days.
Of the total Rs 1082-crore seizures made between the announcement of polls on October 16 and Nov 18, Rs 354.8 crore were in freebies, Rs 302 crore in precious metals; Rs 182 crore in cash; Rs 123.6 crore in drugs and Rs 119.9 crore in liquor.
While Maharashtra recorded seizures worth over Rs 660 crore this time as compared to Rs 103.6 crore in the latest round of polls, the figure for Jharkhand was Rs 198 crore, up from Rs 18.8 crore in 2019.
With a worth of Rs 282.5 crore, metals accounted for the highest value of seizures in Maharashtra, followed by illegal cash at Rs 153.5 crore. In Jharkhand, the biggest poll inducements in terms of value were freebies (Rs 152 crore), making up almost 80% of Thr state’s total seizures worth Rs 198 crore.
In the bypolls too, freebies accounted for the highest seizures at Rs 121.6 crore.
EC had, during the review meetings with enforcement agencies, central observers briefing and senior officials from neighbouring states, consistently listed curbing the role of money power in the elections as a priority.
In Maharashtra, seizures were recorded in all cohorts across all districts. A few noteworthy operations included seizure of Rs. 3.7 crore of cash from a suspicious Jeep in Wada police station area in Palghar District. In Jamod AC of Buldhana district, 4500 kg of Ganja plants worth Rs 4.51 crore were seized. In Raigad, Rs. 5.2 crore worth of silver bars were seized.
Jharkhand also witnessed record seizures and the focus this time was on curbing illicit mining activitieswhich resulted in seizures of illegal mining materials and machines involved. In a single incident, Rs 2.3 crore worth of illegal mining material was seized in Rajmahal AC in Sahibganj district. In Daltonganj, 687 kg of poppy straw was seized, while in Hazaribagh 48.18 kg of marijuana was seized.
