Stepping up vigil with the deployment of additional flying squads to prevent distribution of cash, the District Election Office has seized more than Rs. 12 lakh meant for distribution to voters in six places since Wednesday.
A majority of the seizures were made from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam cadres. In a seizure made near Iyer Bungalow area coming under Madurai East constituency on Thursday morning, officials said that Rs. 1.10 lakh was seized from an AIADMK functionary, Imayagiri, while he was allegedly distributing money to voters in the area. A case has been registered at Tallakulam police station against Mr. Imayagiri.
During enquiry, he revealed that he received the cash from another party functionary, Murugesan, residing in Surya Nagar. Based on the information, Income Tax officials carried out a raid on Mr. Murugesan’s house and seized several documents, officials said.
In another incident, near the house of an AIADMK councillor in Jawaharpuram in Madurai North constituency, Rs. 5 lakh was seized from an abandoned scooter.
The officials made the seizure after an alert to the election control room that cash was being distributed in the area.
They added that further inquiry was being conducted and the vehicle has been traced to a person named S. Ranjith Kumar.
In similar incidents on Wednesday, about Rs. 6.2 lakh was seized at various places and four persons were arrested and remanded in custody, officials said.
Apart from the seizures, officials said, raids by IT departments were conducted in five places, including the house of Madurai Corporation West Zone Chairman K. Rajapandian at Arasaradi, in the past two days.
289 flying squads
Collector and Election Officer K. Veera Raghava Rao said that, apart from the 51 flying squads and 30 static surveillance teams (SSTs) that had been deployed already, 238 more flying squads had been deployed across all the constituencies.
Among the 238 new flying squad teams, a maximum of 30 teams had been deployed in Usilampatti constituency, the geographically largest segment in the district.
“We are responding to all the alerts at the shortest possible time,” he said. Officials said that the election control room at the Collectorate alone received 85 alerts on Wednesday.
