EC appreciates IT crackdown on black money in Bihar, Jharkhand

Patna: The Election Commission has complimented the Income Tax department in Bihar and Jharkhand for launching crackdown on black money and unaccounted cash for use in polls.

The appreciation came during a meeting between I-T and EC team, comprising of Election Commissioners HS Brahma and Nasim Zaidi, which came to Patna on two-day visit late last week. "When we told the EC team about manpower deployment by I-T in all constituency and crackdown on real time basis on black money and unaccounted cash for use in present Lok Sabha poll, they said it could be emulated in other parts of the country," Director of Investigation department, Bihar and Jharkhand, Kumar Sanjay told a news agency today. Sanjay, who was present at a meeting with EC along with Director General of I-T, Bihar and Jharkhand, Ujjwal Chaudhary on Saturday, said we told the EC team about deployment of nodal officer in all 54 Lok Sabha seats in the two states besides placing officials at Airport of Patna, Gaya and Ranchi. "We informed them about detection of Rs 50 lakh loan procured by AJSU (All Jharkhand Student Union) from two businessmen of state who could not explain the purpose of transaction," Sanjay said. Sanjay said, "We suggested the EC team that some identification document like Pan Card of donors to political parties should be made mandatory which they took very seriously and promised to give a serious thought over it.” In addition to seizure of Rs 41.5 lakh cash seizure from Darbhanga and Bagha, the I-T department has come across unaccounted cash of Rs 48 lakh from Motihari. In addition to this, `challans` of Rs 9.8 lakh have been seized so far by the Bihar wing. Similarly, in Jharkhand, Rs 24 lakh cash has been seized and Rs 4.9 lakh `challan` realised, Sanjay said.