Seizure of silver articles and cash by the poll machinery during vehicle checks to ensure compliance to Model Code of Conduct continued on Thursday and officials seized Rs 15 lakh worth of silver articles and cash of Rs 1.5 lakhs in two different incidents.
Poll machinery flying squad officials intercepted a merchant Jasmal Dheeran Jain (25) who came from Puducherry. Police who examined his bag found huge quantity of silver articles weighing closer to 24 kg and valued at Rs 15 lakh. Though the merchant said that he was selling them to retailers for sale, police found him not having any required documents to vouch to his claim regarding the source and purpose. It was handed over to the Principal Assistant Returning Officer and Corporation Deputy Commissioner S.Sivarasu.
In another incident, Kuppusamy (40) of Oddanchattiram in Dindigul was intercepted at Ukkadam when he was on his way to Calicut, where he claimed to have started a business in textiles. He was found in possession of Rs 1.5 lakhs but had no documents pertaining to source or purpose of the funds. It was also handed over to the poll machinery.
Meanwhile, District Collector Archana Patnaik held a meeting with owners of wedding halls and printing press across the district. She exhorted the owners of marriage halls to ensure that they properly intimated the hall reservation particulars to the election machinery and jurisdiction police.
Hall reservation should be done only for individuals and family functions and the reservation particulars should be sent to the officials especially Assistant Returning Officers, Tahsildars and police. Marriage hall owners should also ensured that the people who hired the halls never displayed photographs/banners of political party leaders, flags, symbols in any manner.
In the event of any failure to comply with these conditions, action will be initiated under the provisions of Representation of People Act and Indian Penal Code against the owner as well as the person who hired the hall.
Similarly, she instructed the printing press owners that four copies of the materials printed should be submitted to the poll machinery and police within three days. It should be along with a copy of the declaration signed by the person for whom the printing was done with the signature of two witnesses.The forms sent to the officials should also have the name of the person who ordered the printing, address and the number of copies printed. The printed material should have the name of the press. Printers should desist from printing any material that contains personal attacks.
