Showing serious concern over rampant use of illegal money in the ongoing Bihar state assembly polls, the Election Commission has directed all agencies to make all round efforts with real-time intelligence sharing to monitor suspicious transactions.
As the election process has already started, EC has directed the agencies that all actionable intelligence must be put to use at once, EC's spokesperson Dhirendra Ojha said.
Alarmed over the spurt in Hawala transactions, the poll watchdog has also asked income tax authorities in Delhi and Bihar to investigate the matter and identify and map expenditure sensitive areas and persons associated with Hawala operations.
As a follow up action to the commission's directions, Income Tax authorities after searches have recovered Rs 19 crores unaccounted money in Delhi and Bihar – about Rs5.25 crore in Delhi from 9 persons and Rs13.75 crores from 4 persons in Muzaffarpur, Ojha said.
Besides, the election commission has deputed 49 IRS officers as expenditure observers in sensitive zones of Bihar to track expenditure done by different candidates and political parties. These officers were given week long training by the election commission to track and check the use of money.
