GUWAHATI: Cash seizures during polls in the Northeast have recorded an all-time high with amounts seized by the directorate of income tax (investigation) already crossing 482 per cent of that of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
An amount of Rs 1.21 crore was seized during the 2104 General elections in the region while, during the current election process, cash seizures by the directorate stand at Rs 5.84 crore for the period March 12, 2019 to April 8, 2019, an official statement issued here said.
Cash seized in just 27 days of election time enforcement is more than 50 per cent of unexplained cash seized in whole of financial year 2017-18 and even exceeds seizure amount in entire pre-election period of financial year 2018-19.
Last polling date in Northeast is April 23, 2019.
Since the announcement of General Elections 2019 on March 12, 2019, the investigation directorate has been on an intense intelligence and enforcement drive to counter flow of black money during elections.
Over 160 Income Tax sleuths have been deployed at strategic locations across Northeast, including air intelligence teams in 12 airports. This has resulted in an all-time high cash seizure of unexplained money during any election period in the Northeast.
As a first, the directorate has also initiated investigation into hundreds of suspicious cash deposits and withdrawals above Rs 10 lakh through banks across Northeast and is being assisted by the Financial Intelligence Unit of India, Reserve Bank of India and 68 banks in the exercise.
The directorate is also going to use ‘Big-Data’ mining and analytics tools to identify high-risk transactions. Investigation of these transactions is expected to unearth substantial black money.