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₹ 200-Crore Election "Freebies" Seized In 3 Weeks In Rajasthan

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 18:56:32  S O Correspondent   PTI

Jaipur: Rajasthan Police seized election "freebies" worth ₹ 200-crore, including cash, liquor, narcotics and jewellery, since the Model Code of Conduct came into force on October 9, a top official said Saturday.

Leading a team of 12 officers, Inspector General of Police Vikas Kumar has formed a 'Storm Club' to keep a strict vigil across the state and ensure voters are not illegally influenced by the candidates during the campaign for November 25 polls.

"So far, we have made recoveries to the tune of ₹ 214 crore, which includes ₹ 25 crore cash, liquor worth ₹ 20 crore and jewellery and gold worth ₹ 20 crore," said Mr Kumar, a 2004-batch IPS officer.

Besides, drugs worth ₹ 60 crore, petrol, diesel and illegally stored fertilizer meant to influence voters were also seized across districts, added the officer.

He credited the officers working in the war room of 'Storm Club', an acronym for Supervision, Tracking, Operation, Recordkeeping, Monitoring, Control and Command, Liaison and Unified Base.

"This entire work is being done under operation MONACO (Monitoring of Nakas Augmented with Coded Operation). As many as 650 check posts with unique code and monitoring have been set up across the state and are under constant monitoring at the war room," he said.

The officer, who is credited with unearthing a fake arms licensing scam in Jammu and Kashmir during a probe of underworld activities in Rajasthan, said illegal arms and ammunition were also recovered during the vigil since October 9.

Mr Kumar, currently Rajasthan Police's nodal officer to the Election Commission for expenditure monitoring, said the department has initiated certain schemes for rewarding the officers or naka party for the seizures.

"We have registered several cases for the seizures done as all of them were meant for election campaigning in the state," he said.

Rajasthan will be going to polls on November 25. The seizure of "freebies" during the last elections amounted to ₹ 65 crore.