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Poll period cash seizures in NE mount to Rs 7.33 cr

By STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16 - Continuing its drive on �unexplained cash� during the ongoing election period, the Investigation Directorate of Income Tax, North East Region, has so far made seizures of Rs 7.33 crore from the date of announcement of polls by the Election Commission.

�This massive haul during the brief period of last one month far exceeds cash seizures of Rs 1.21 crore made by the Directorate during the 2014 General Elections and is already 605 per cent of the total amount seized in the previous elections. It is significant that nearly 75 per cent of the seizures have taken place just in the past two weeks and include operations based on independent intelligence against moneylenders and interceptions at airports by the Directorate�s Air Intelligence Units across the seven sister states of the North East,� said an official statement.

It added that Principal Director Income Tax, North East Region, Sanjay Bahadur recently held a meeting with all officers of the Investigation Directorate to deliberate strategies for further tightening of the election expenditure monitoring process in the upcoming second and third phases of polling in the region.

Following that, Subhrajyoti Bhattacharjee, Additional Director and Nodal Officer, has repositioned officials from constituencies where polling has finished in the first phase, and deployed them in the remaining poll-bound constituencies.

All the 12 Air Intelligence Units will remain active across the Northeast till April 23, the last date of polling in the region.

The Air Intelligence Units are also monitoring unscheduled and chartered private flights at all airports and Income Tax Surveillance Teams have asked various district authorities to alert them of helicopter landings in the districts.

A Special Task Force is being constituted to investigate hundreds of suspicious bank transactions involving high value cash deposits and withdrawals.

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