Malda election cell seizes almost Rs 64L

Malda: The flying squad team (FST) and Static surveillance team (SST) operating naka checks in Malda has intercepted and seized cash amounting to almost

Rs 64 lakh. Incidentally, amounts over Rs 10 lakh and above are intercepted by the teams and handed over to Income Tax (I-T) department for verification while the amounts less than Rs 10 lakh are seized and verified by the District Grievance Committee. To monitor the election expenditure, such FST and SST have been formed by the district election cell.

On March 26, a sum of about Rs 27 lakh was intercepted by FST from English Bazar and was handed over to the I-T department. However, after verification the amount was released. Later, on April 14 and 21, amounts of Rs 11 lakh and over Rs 18 lakh were intercepted from English Bazar and Kaliachak respectively. Both the cases are now being verified by the I-T department.

Further, the teams also seized Rs 7.77 lakh from different places of the district from April 12 to 17. On April 12, an amount of Rs 3.5 lakh was seized from Gazole. On April 14, two seizures were made of Rs 60,000 each.

On April 16, a sum of Rs 57,000 was seized from Old Malda and on April 17, a sum of Rs 2.5 lakh from Habibpur. The district grievance committee is holding hearings on these seizures to verify the source of the funds. Meanwhile, seven observers have arrived in Malda to oversee the election. A general observer and an expenditure observer for North Malda have already started functioning. On the other hand, 2 general and 2 expenditure observers have been deputed for South Malda seat with a single police observer for the district. Nitin Singhania, District Magistrate Malda, said: “There are a total of 7 observers from the Election Commission of India (ECI) presently in Malda. The FST and SSTs are working diligently with interceptions and seizures of cash in various areas of Malda.”