Dr.Thomas (Sub-Editor)
A day after rupees two crore was recovered from a vehicle by the SST team,election officials on Sunday filed a case against a State Office secretary BJP Party and others charging them under Undue influence at elections and also under Representation of people Act on Sunday.
High drama prevailed after the IT department officials refused to seize the cash and initiate necessary action following which the SST team approached the court and Election Commission Of India seeking permission to register FIR.
Based on the complaint Ravi Asuti,AEE KPTCL,Deputed as SST team head,the Cottonpet police registered the case against Lokesh Ambekallu,State Office secretary BJP Party,Venkatesh Prasad and others .
According to the complaint,the SST team on Saturday night intercepted a car at Chamarajpet,carrying Rs 2 crore cash at 4.05 pm in two bags.
The vehicle was seized and the income tax officials were alerted.
The IT team verified the documents and summoned BJP office-bearers and concluded that there was no violation under IT laws.
In the meantime,officials from the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka,had intimated the Election Commission of India,as per procedure about the unaccounted cash without documents .
“As per ECI directions cash of over ₹10,000 given to party functionaries, candidates or agents for political activities should be done through cheques or online mode.
ECI has also advised political parties not to carry huge amounts of cash.
In his complaint Mr.Asuti said that Venkatesh Prasad and his associate Gangadhar, admitted that they are carrying the cash for the BJP party and submitted a letter stating that the ₹ 5 crore was withdrawn from Canara Bank Kodandandaramapura branch on March 27.
Among the cash ₹ 2 crore was being carried to distribute to the booth workers in Mysuru,Kodagu, Chamarajnagar and Bengaluru south constituency.
However the letter did not have any specific details and suspected that the cash was suspected to be part of corrupt practice or to induce voters.
Moreover the cash was withdrawn 25 days ago and the details of the cash transportation was missing,Mr. Asuti ,said in his complaint.
Even though there was a provision of UPI,RTGS and NEFT mode of transactions, carrying huge amount of hard cash did not have any justification and matter of serious concern, the complaint, stated .
The FIR has been filed under Section 123 of the Representation of People’s Act and 171 (B), (C), (E) and (F) of IPC related to bribery and undue influence.
