Hyderabad: If the Narendra Modi-led NDA is being accused of targeting only Opposition parties by using the Income-Tax department (which appears to be in a hyper active mode prior to elections) against them, in Telangana state the situation is no different. Except that more than the Income-Tax department, it is the Telangana state police that appears to be getting “credible information” about the unaccounted cash transportation linked only, and only, to the Congress party.
It is polling day on Thursday and going by the seizures made by the state police, particularly the Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda police commissionerates, over the last 10 days, it appears as though all the eyes and ears of the Telangana state police were meant to look out for the cash of the Opposition alone.
Though a lot of noise was made about the seizure of the Rs 8 crore belonging to the BJP, it turns out that the cash was accounted for and was withdrawn from the BJP’s own account.
Sources told Deccan Chronicle that the modus operandi adopted by the police to target specific leaders of the Opposition is to “plant” sources or moles around the candidates/leaders they want to keep an eye on. These sources are bought over much in advance.
“Much before the elections, a lot of information is gathered about the key contacts of those leaders with whom they discuss money. Phones of these leaders, their aides and their contacts are monitored continuously. In some instances, shadow parties (policemen in mufti who follow the person throughout the day) are also deployed,” sources said, adding that all these measures end up in lots of inputs trickling in continuously, which leads to cash seizures.
The same set of measures, sources said, are not taken for the ruling party for obvious reasons and therefore, no cash seizures.
This despite the fact that the Income-Tax department’s own assessment was that each parliamentary candidate in Telangana state and AP was spending not less Rs 80 crore and those contesting Assembly elections were spending between `40 to Rs 50 crore.
The buzz within the political parties was that Lok Sabha candidates were spending over Rs 100 crore.
In the last few days, the state police have seized cash, allegedly linked directly or indirectly to Congress leaders Uttam Kumar Reddy (Rs 2.4 crore cash), A. Revanth Reddy (Rs 23 lakh and in another case Rs 34 lakh) and K. Jana Reddy (Rs 1 crore).
The latest on the list is the money allegedly linked to one of the richest candidates in the country, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy of the Congress. One of his close aides is in custody, allegedly for distributing Rs 15 crore among the voters.
Another police official said that cash transportation by any ruling party reaches the money stocking point several months or even a year before the elections are scheduled.
“Sometimes, money reaches the mandal level one year in advance and this transportation is done using government machinery. For the Opposition, it is not easy, though they too try to park the money in advance, but the fear of leakage is always there. Therefore, they end up transporting cash during election period and get caught, which is mostly on specific inputs.”
There are two types of interceptions — one random and the other information-based.
“There is always little chance of seizure of cash in a random interception as political parties, in their desperation to transport cash from one point to the other, usually make mistakes which ends up in random seizure. But seizures are mostly information based, which can come from planting sources around the candidate or disgruntled elements within the party including those who are not satisfied with the amount of money given to them.”
As for the ruling party, which is sure of winning the elections, there are no complainants and even the disgruntled elements will prefer to remain silent. “Importantly, the ruling party does not transport cash during elections. Everything is taken care of much in advance,” sources said.
