The Income Tax Department has seized Rs 7.33 crore cash in the north-eastern states since the EC model code of conduct came into force on March 10, officials said on Tuesday.
"The seizure of unexplained cash in this brief period exceeds the Rs. 1.21 crore seized during the 2014 general elections. Nearly 75 of seizures were done in the past two weeks and include operations based on independent intelligence against moneylenders and interceptions at airports by the IT Directorate's Air Intelligence Units," said Sanjay Bahadur, IT Principal Director of the northeast region.
Bahadur held a meeting with officers of the Directorate's investigation wing to further tighten the election expenditure monitoring process in the upcoming phases of the polls in the region.
Following that, Subhrajyoti Bhattacharjee, Additional Director and nodal officer, redeployed officials from constituencies where polling completed in the first phase to the poll-bound constituencies.
All the 12 Air Intelligence Units (AIU), functioning under Joint Director Mrinal K. Das, will remain active till April 23, the last poll date in the region.
The AIU is also monitoring unscheduled and chartered private flights at all airports and I-T surveillance teams have asked district authorities to alert them about all helicopter landings.
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A special task force was being set up to investigate hundreds of bank transactions, involving high value cash deposits and withdrawals, officials said.
--IANS
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