With just 10 days left for the Karnataka Assembly elections, the leaders’ rallies and speeches are going well, on one hand, on the other hand, the police force has their hands full.
In the poll-bound state, some 400 odd policemen are busy stopping vehicles, looking for cash and other voter inducements.
Under the orders of the Election Commission, the police have been working 24×7 checking private vehicles, peering into the boot, bags and glove department.
Bengaluru has 28 constituencies, each with three static check posts and six flying squads. “We check all kinds of vehicles, even two-wheelers,” City Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar explains.
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Recently the cops have caught a man in a bus with Rs. 50 lakhs in a bag, and Rs 1.5 crores in unaccounted cash in a car, in another situation.
One vehicle was carrying 52 kilos of gold and Rs 20 lakh in cash. It was going from Devanahalli to Mico Layout.
If police find more than Rs 10 lakh on a person, they notify the income tax department, which then swings into action.
Up to Rs 50,000 can be carried in cash, but anything above that calls for documentary evidence, he says.
Slum areas, areas with communal history, and where inducement takes place easily, are under close scrutiny, said Suneel Kumar.
A senior police officer says black money is transported through diverse channels. “The money is split and sent through multiple channels. So if they lose one source, the others are still safe,” he says. Money is always transported during the day because the checks are more stringent at night.
Police say it is humanly impossible to check every single vehicle. “We check those driven in a suspicious manner. We can tell from the driver’s body language if something is amiss,” the officer says.
Police have seized cash and material, but not made any arrests.
Suneel also said; “Documents of those caught carrying cash and gold are still being verified. And small amounts don’t mandate an arrest.”
The punishment for carrying unaccounted cash is a fine and imprisonment of six months to a year.
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So far they have confiscated:
Cash: Rs 6.7 crore
Gold: 52 kg
Saris: 870
Water bottles worth: Rs 22,000
Mixies worth: Rs 36,000
Hotboxes worth: Rs 5,000
Sewing machines worth: Rs 25,000
Mysore peta (turbans) worth: Rs 8,000
Pressure cookers (120) worth: Rs 1 lakh
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