Police seize Rs 50 lakh cash in pre-poll raids

Over Rs 50 lakh in cash was seized from two different places in Odisha's Ganjam district in the pre-poll raids by the police and flying squad, official sources said here today.
While Rs 46,49,860 was seized from the house of one S Era Swamy, the head of the village committee in Pitatali village in Chikiti assembly segment last night by the police, the flying squad seized around Rs 4 lakh from a person at Panthanivash, Rambha today.
Acting on a tip-off police raided the house of Swamy. Police also recovered over 200 flags of ruling BJD from his house during the raids.

SP (Berhampur) Anirudha Singh confirmed the seizure of the cash. "We are verifying his motive behind storing a huge amount of cash in his home" Singh said.
In another incident, the flying squad also seized cash of Rs 4 lakh from a person near Panthanivash, Rambha under Chhatrapur assemby segment in the district.
Police however did not disclose the name of the person and his party affiliation. "The cash was seized, but the person and his party affiliation is not clear," SP (Ganjam) Ashish Kumar Singh said.

The CPI(M) candidate in Berhampur Lok Sabha candidate Ali Kishore Patnaik however said he has intimated the election observer about the distribution of money by some of the supporters of the ruling party at Panthanibash, Rambha. On his information, the flying squad conducted the raids.

In Chikiti segment, Woman and Child Development minister Usha Devi is contesting from BJD. Manoranjan Dyansamantara and Udayanath Pradhan are contesting from Congress and BJP respectively.
Meanwhile District Collector Prem Chandra Chaudhary said besides the police, 39 static surveillance team (SST) and 40 flying squads (FS) have been formed to monitor the elections.