Telangana: IT Dept seizes Rs 14.8 cr cash

Hyderabad: The Income Tax (IT) Department alone has seized Rs 14.8 crore cash so far in poll-bound Telangana.

In the 2018 Assembly elections in Telangana, the IT department had seized Rs 20 crore cash.

Based on in-house intelligence, the huge cash was seized by the IT department from a house in Medak district , according to an IT official.

Since the announcement of elections, seizure reports pertaining to Rs Rs 53.93 crore amount of cash, 156 kgs of gold jewellery and 454 kgs of silver have been received from the state police /Flying Squad Team(FST) and out of this, a total cash amount of Rs 1.76 crore was found to be unexplained and has been sized by the Income Tax Department , said Mr Sanjay Bahadur, Director General (DG) of Income Tax (Investigation), Hyderabad, in a press conference here on Wednesday.

Out of Rs 53.93 crores cash seized, Rs 10.99 crores have been released after verification of the documents while the remaining amount was under verification, he informed and said that no gold jewellery has been seized as unexplained.

The verification of seizure data received is being done on real time basis within 24-hours, said Sanjay.

Over 250 Income Tax staff including 100 from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, have been deployed for election duty in poll-bound Telangana, he said.

Besides forming of Response Teams (QRT) at all 33 districts in the state, the IT department also set up ‘Air Intelligence Units (AIUs)’ at Begumpet Airport and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport for the round-the-clock surveillance in coordination with CISF on movement of cash and valuables, the DG said.

AIUs at all other airports in India which have connectivity to Hyderabad have also been informed to keep continuous alert on passengers travelling to Hyderabad, he informed.

The department would verify affidavits declaring assets and liabilities by the candidates during the nomination in the elections with coordination with FIU, he said.

As per the Election commission of India guidelines, if cash of more than Rs 10 lakh is found in a vehicle and there is suspicion of commission of any crime or linkage to any candidate or agent or party functionary, the FST/SST would seize the cash and pass on the information to the IT authority, for necessary action under income IT laws, said Sanjay.

A 24×7 Control room and complaint Monitoring cell ( Toll Free No: 1800-425-1785; Landline No. 040-23426201/23426202; WhatsApp/Telegram No. 7013711399 and e-mail id: [email protected]) also set up to receive information/complaint from general public regarding cash – intended for illegitimate use in the election process, he said.

ESMS (Election Seizure Management System) App was being used for the first time by ECI in this election for verification of seizure reports, he added.

Additional Director of Income Tax (Investigation), Hyderabad G N Raghavendra Rao and Nodal Officer (Elections) M.Karthik Manickam were also present in the meeting.