Cash seizure in five poll-bound states beats previous records, says CBDT chairman Nitin Gupta

New Delhi [India], November 15 : The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman, Nitin Gupta, said on Wednesday that more cash has been seized in the five states that are set to undergo assembly elections this year than it was seized in these states during the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 or the last assembly elections in these states.
"There has been a higher cash seizure from all five states as compared to the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 or the last legislative assembly elections," said Nitin Gupta.
The CBDT chairman said that the way the data is received, efforts are always directed towards working on this data and identifying if there is any unexplained cash. Once any unexplained cash is found, it is seized.
Further lauding the law enforcement agencies, he credited these agencies for making the process of cash seizure possible.
"All the law enforcement agencies are working together with great coordination, which has made all this possible," said Nitin Gupta.
The number of election-related seizures, including cash, liquor, and narcotics, has been high this time in all five poll-bound states. The five states that had been scheduled for legislative assembly elections this year are Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Mizoram.
The first phase of polling for 20 seats already concluded in Chhattisgarh on November 7, along with Mizoram having its polling for 40 assembly seats concluded on the same day.
The remaining 70 assembly seats in Chhattisgarh will be contested on November 17, with the state of Madhya Pradesh witnessing its 230 assembly constituencies undergo polling on the same day.
Rajasthan and Telangana are scheduled to undergo legislative assembly elections on November 25 and November 30, respectively. The counting of votes in all five states will be on December 3.
One of the leading examples of election-related cash seizure is the Mahadev betting app fraud, wherein the Enforcement Directorate received intelligence input on November 2 that the promoters of the Mahadev betting app were moving a large amount of cash for the Assembly Elections scheduled in Chhattisgarh.
ED conducted searches at Hotel Triton and another location in Bhilai and successfully intercepted cash courier Asim Das, who was allegedly sent from the UAE, especially to deliver large amounts of cash for electioneering expenses of the ruling Congress Party in Chhatisgarh.
ED claims that from the questioning of Asim Das, the forensic examination of the phone recovered from him, and the examination of an email sent by one of the high-ranking accused of the Mahadev network, many startling allegations have come forth, namely, that regular payments have allegedly been made in the past and so far around Rs 508 crore have been paid by Mahadev APP promoters to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Bhupesh Baghel.