The Forum for Good Governance claimed that the attempts made by the Election Commission to arrest the flow of cash during the operation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) did not give the desired result as only 24% of the total cases were registered with First Information Reports (FIRs) filed and rest of the cash seized was returned during the Assembly elections held in December 2018.
At a press conference on Wednesday, forum secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy urged the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to review the cases filed with the police officers concerned regularly to ensure that these were taken to the logical conclusion before the next elections. Data gathered by FGG showed about 640 cases of seizure of ₹84.36 crore were reported out of which FIRs were filed for 159 cases only. In the remaining 481 cases, ₹56.09 crore was released!
Giving specific examples, he said that in Khanapur police station of Khammam town, ₹10 lakh was seized but no action was taken and case was dropped; in Adilabad One town police station limits, ₹81 lakh was seized but no case was registered and cash was released; In Chiragpally police station of Sangareddy, ₹50 lakh was seized but no case was booked and money was released.
Another seizure of ₹17.26 lakh was made in Shamshabad police station limits but no case was booked and money was released. In Wadapally police station of Nalgonda, ₹24 lakh was seized with no case booked, cash handed over to the district election authority and later on released!
Mr. Reddy charged that cases, however, were booked for petty amounts and persons were arrested. For instance, a case was registered in Gadwal police station limits after ₹500 was seized; three persons were arrested for possessing ₹1,650 in Dammapet police station limits of Bhadradri; another case was registered by Ashwaraopet police for possessing ₹2,200; another person was arrested within the same police station with ₹4,000 seized; cases filed against eight persons and ₹5,800 seized at Peddapally police station of Peddapally district.
Despite instructions for not insisting on proof where cash involved was less than ₹50,000, it was not done. When the amount seized was more than ₹10 lakh such cases should be brought to the notice of the Income Tax department but it was not followed in all districts, he said. In cases where there were Hawala transactions like in Jangoan police station where more than ₹5.80 crore was seized and an additional ₹10 crore seized, the local police handled the cases instead of referring the matter to the Enforcement Department. FIRs too were filed against those carrying cash rather than the contesting candidates.
In many cases, the seized cash was handed over to the IT department when “it does not look into the criminal aspect.” Instead of rushing to the media about the cash seized, the police should conduct a proper enquiry, register the cases and only then inform the media for which the EC should give detailed guidelines, he said.
