New Delhi: The Election Commission on Tuesday directed the probe agencies under the central department of revenue to "come down heavily" on those who indulge in using black money and illegal inducements to vitiate the ongoing poll process.
The EC also asked the CBDT to furnish to it a full report by Wednesday on the raids conducted by Income Tax Department on close aides of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and others in four states on Sunday.
Union Revenue Secretary A B Pandey and CBDT chairman P C Mody Tuesday morning met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra, after the poll panel sought a meeting on a recent directive to the revenue department for a fair and impartial conduct of operations by agencies under its command, such as the I-T Department, ED and Customs and DRI.
Official sources said the two officials briefed the EC on the intelligence inputs it is receiving during the election season and the mechanism to execute surprise checks and raids in case the inputs are "credible".
The Delhi investigation wing received a similar input about "large-scale collection, possession and movement of unaccounted assets" from Madhya Pradesh to Delhi and hence the raids happened, the officials told the EC according to the sources.
It is likely that the tax department will in the coming days slap criminal charges for possessing illegal foreign assets and benami properties against the accused based on the document found during the raids.
As voluminous data, in the form of papers, diaries and hard drives, have been seized and are being processed, the CBDT was taking time to present a full report of the operation, they said. They added that the I-T Department has also grilled a few people and sending summons to a number of them to depose so that the probe can be taken forward.