More than 4,100 cases were booked in Telangana and 5, 700 in Andhra Pradesh during the run-up to the 2014 general elections. These included offences like liquor, gold and cash being seized, apart from other violations of the election code.
The information, which was acquired through the Right to Information (RTI) Act, was provided by the Forum for Good Governance (FGG) here on Thursday. The data reveals that a total of 4,133 cases were registered in Telangana. This included 1,199 cases for poll code violation, 543 cases of cash seizure, 198 cases of gold and other items being seized and a whopping 2,194 cases of liquor being seized.
Similarly, out of the 5, 733 cases registered in AP, poll code violations constituted 1,199 cases, cash seizure 1, 373, cases of seizure of gold and other items 200, and 2, 780 cases registered for liquor.
“The Representation of People’s (RP) Act is very clear about the offences, which have punishments including disqualification,” said FGG secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy.
Cash seizedThough the number of cases booked for cash seizure in Telangana was just 543, compared to 1,371 in Andhra Pradesh, money seized in the former was Rs.34.38 crore, higher than the Rs.32 crore seized from AP.
In Telangana, the most amount of cash seized was from Hyderabad district (Rs.16.73 crore), followed by Mahabubnagar (Rs.6.34 crore). In Andhra Pradesh, the largest amount of cash seized was from West Godavari district (Rs.4.8 crore), followed by Anantapur district with Rs.4.1 crore.
“Most of the money seized is released once the elections are over by the Income Tax (IT) Department or the police, as there is no uniform procedure of handling the cash after seizure. The cops are supposed to dispose it off in the courts, but they give it to the IT Department,” said Mr. Reddy, stating that IT officials simply collect due tax, if any, from the offenders and release the rest to him again.
Citing an example, RTI data provided about information of cash seized in the Goshamahal constituency by Begumbazar police clearly showed that amounts seized from various persons during the run-up to the elections was given to the IT department. IT officials then took advance tax (various taxes taken in advance for the next year from the offender) and then returned the remaining amount.
“RTI also shows ‘action drop’, which means that the case was not pursued by the police,” said Mr. Reddy, while appealing to the Director Generals of Police (DGPs) of both States to review the cases.
