A total of cash, liquor and other freebies worth Rs 319 crore have been seized by the Election Flying Squad and enforcement agencies in West Bengal till Sunday. An officer gave this information.
Among the five election-bound states/UTs, Bengal leads in the recovery of free gifts (Rs 150 crore), liquor (Rs 55 crore), precious metals (Rs 39 crore) and cash (Rs 11 crore), which were allegedly being used to induce voters.
The Election Commission statement said law enforcement agencies have recovered drugs worth Rs 65 crore from the state ahead of the two phases of elections to be held on April 23 and 29.
The Election Commission said that out of 29.63 lakh liters of liquor seized by election officials in all five states/UTs, the highest amount of liquor was seized in West Bengal at 21.29 lakh litres.
The Election Commission said Rs 4 crore in cash has been seized by flying squads and surveillance teams in Assam ahead of the elections. Apart from cash, 6,84,627 liters of liquor worth Rs 20 crore has also been seized in the state.
The Election Commission said drugs worth Rs 56 crore, precious metals worth Rs 4 crore and other free items worth Rs 13 crore have been seized in Assam till April 5.
The Election Commission said that the total value of free gifts and banned items recovered so far in Assam is Rs 97 crore.
Overall, assets worth Rs 170 crore have been seized in Tamil Nadu. This includes drugs worth Rs 67 crore, other free items worth Rs 63 crore, cash worth Rs 30 crore, precious metals worth Rs 8 crore, and liquor worth Rs 2 crore.
In Kerala, the Election Commission has recovered bribe items worth a total of Rs 58 crore. These include drugs worth Rs 41 crore, cash worth Rs 8 crore, other free items worth Rs 5 crore, liquor worth Rs 2 crore and precious metals worth Rs 1 crore.
The items recovered in Puducherry are worth Rs 7 crore, which includes precious metals worth Rs 6 crore, cash worth Rs 20 lakh, liquor worth Rs 30 lakh and other free items worth Rs 1 lakh.
Overall, enforcement agencies have seized cash, liquor, drugs, precious metals and free gifts worth more than Rs 651.5 crore from all five poll-bound states.
To ensure violence-free, intimidation-free and inducement-free elections, the Election Commission has deployed 5,173 flying squads across States/UTs to ensure that complaints are resolved within 100 minutes.
Additionally, the ECI said that more than 5,200 static surveillance teams (SSTs) have also been deployed to conduct surprise vigil at various locations.
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