Various Central and State law enforcement agencies have stepped up the surveillance to check hoarding and movement of unaccounted cash in Kerala in a bid to prevent use of black money for the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign.
The seizure of vast amounts of cash from the premises of political agents in neighbouring Tamil Nadu has put enforcers in the State on their toes.
They said Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena had flagged up the possible cross-border movement of black money to bank-roll the election campaign on the sly and purchase influence by transferring cash or commodities to vulnerable voters. Consequently, the law enforcers have stepped up the surveillance of vehicular and freight movement into Kerala from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
An Income Tax Department enforcer said black money need not always be used to purchase votes directly. Unaccounted cash, invariably backhanders from moneyed groups jockeying for their business interests, often aided political agents to pay for advertisements, vehicles and wages and victuals of party workers without having to report under-the-table transactions to Election Expenditure Observers (EEOs).
20 observers
Mr. Meena told The Hindu that 20 expenditure observers from the Election Commission of India (ECI) were here to audit the campaign spending of candidates daily.
Returning Officers had assigned their staff to assist them.
He said joint teams of the police, Central Excise and Customs, IT sleuths, Sales Tax and Excise enforcers were also focussed on detecting illegal cash transfers, if any.
Another officer said the teams would mark out bulk purchases of consumables, chiefly liquor, mobile phones, television sets, grinders, fans and air coolers, and track their movement to ensure that the commodities were not offered to voters as inducements. They would also verify the billing at hotels, which cater to campaigners.
Fake notes
Commissioner of Customs, Kochi, Sumit Kumar said his enforcers were concentrated on preventing fake Indian currency notes and proceeds from gold smuggling from sluicing through the political system. He said prevention hinged on actionable intelligence and several teams were at work covertly.
