As many as 19 cars, reportedlyhired by Income Tax officials who are carrying out searches at properties of some senior officials of Chhattisgarh government and others, were seized by the police here on Friday for 'violation' of traffic rules.Income Tax officials did not confirm if the vehicles had been hired by them."In view of President Ram Nath Kovind's visit to Raipur on March 1, check points have been set up to keep an eye on suspicious movement of vehicles," a senior police official told PTI."Around 2 am this morning, cars belonging to private travel operators were found parked in no-parking zone near Raj Talkies. Drivers failed to give satisfactory explanation so the vehicles were taken to a police station," he said.After recovering fine as per the Motor Vehicles Act, the vehicles were released on Friday afternoon, he added."Government agencies did not contact or inform us that the vehicles were being used by IT officials," the police officer said.IT officials did not confirm if their department had hired these vehicles."The department had booked 19 Innova SUVs and cars on Thursday evening. They had asked us to park the vehicles near Raj Talkies," said Kishan Sonkar, a travel operator."We are seeing this kind of action for the first time. Generally vehicles are released after payment of fine. But the vehicles were kept in police custody for more than 12 hours and released only this afternoon," he said.Senior BJP MLA Shivratan Sharma raised the issue in the Chhattisgarh Assembly, alleging that the police were trying to obstruct the ongoing IT raids which began on Thursday.Some of the properties that were raided by IT department allegedly had links to A K Tuteja, joint secretary in the state commerce and industry department, retired IAS officer and former chief secretary VivekDhand and Raipur MayorEzaj Dhebar, officials said.
