HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, March 31: The state broke all previous records in seizures of cash, liquor, drug and other goods after the assembly polls were notified with several agencies confiscating items worth over Rs 110 crore, Assam chief electoral officer (CEO) Nitin Khade said on Wednesday.
During the 2016 state polls, Central and state agencies had seized goods worth less than Rs 20 crore.
“After the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into force on February 26 in view of the state polls, cash and other valuables worth Rs 110.83 crore have been seized till date,” Khade said addressing a press conference here.
“Till now, seizures of drugs and narcotics worth Rs 34.29 crore, over 16.61 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 33.44 crore, cash amounting to Rs 24.50 crore along with gold, silver jewelleries and gold bars worth Rs 3.68 crore have been made,” Khade said.
The items were seized from different parts of the state during search operations carried out by Assam Police, flying squads, static surveillance team, excise, and other enforcement and regulatory agencies, he said.
“Drugs worth Rs. 34.29 crore included- Heroin (4,226.81gm), tablet (1,74,088), Crystalline Methamphetamine (10.27 kg), Capsule (1,22,100), Ganja (6,892.82 kg), Morphin (1000 gms) and Brown Sugar (252.85 gm) were seized during such search operations,” he said.
Freebies and other items like cigarettes of foreign origin, poppy seeds, black pepper, areca nuts, pan masala worth Rs 14.91 crore have also been confiscated, Kharde said.
“So far, 50 FIRs have been registered across the state related to expenditure violation and 5,234 FIRs lodged in connection with violation of excise rules,” the CEO said.
However, he did not share the number of persons who were detained and arrested in connection with the FIRs.
“A total of 2,696 cases have been registered. Out of these, 1,272 cases have been registered online through cVigil app of which 908 cases have been found to be correct,” Khade also said.
After the polls were notified on February 26, all constituencies formed a minimum of three Static Surveillance Teams (SST) and Flying Squads (FS) each, with some even having six such teams.
“We have a minimum of 756 teams working across the state. The seizures by all state and Central agencies along with SST and FS have crossed all figures of last elections,” he said.
Various regulatory agencies like Excise, Police, DRI, NCB, SLBC (SBI), Income Tax, RPF, CISF, CGST, SSB and BSF are engaged in enforcing MCC across the state and carrying out search operations and seizures.