Pre-poll seizure in Telangana mounts to Rs 571 crore

Hyderabad : The seizure of cash, gold, liquor and freebies ahead of Telangana Assembly elections continued on Tuesday with the enforcement agencies reporting seizures of Rs 12.88 crore during the last 24 hours.

With this, the authorities have seized cash, precious metals, liquor and other items worth Rs.57a.80 crore since October 9, when the model code of conduct came into force.

According to the information provided by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Rs 2.55 crore cash was seized from across the state during the last 24 hours that ended at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. The authorities have so far seized Rs 198.30 crore cash from all the 119 Assembly constituencies in the state.

As per the orders of the Election Commission, the enforcement agencies are maintaining a tight vigil on the transportation of illegal liquor. During the 24-hour period, they said 1,617 liters of liquor worth over Rs 2.59 lakh have been seized. They have so far seized 1.32 lakh liters of liquor worth over Rs 85.75 crore.

The authorities also seized ganja, weed oil and LSD blots worth Rs 4.44 lakh. This has taken the total value of narcotics seized so far to Rs 32.43 crore, including 8,190 kg ganja, weed oil, MDMA, hash oil, heroin, cocaine, charas and NDPS.

No precious metals were seized during the 24-hour period, as the value of seizure remained at Rs 178.81 crore, including 292 kg gold and 1,172 kg silver.

Various other items, which may be meant to be distributed among the voters as freebies, were also seized. During the last 24 hours, 40 TVs, 1,260 utensils and 308 sarees of total value Rs 37.27 lakh were seized. So far, items with a cumulative value of Rs 76.49 crore have been seized from across the state.