Cash seized from cattle traders returned after protest in Erode

COIMBATORE: After protests by cattle traders against seizure of money brought for buying cattle from Erode market, the election authorities considered their genuine plea and returned Rs 22 lakh to them on Thursday.

For the weekly cattle market at Karungalpalayam, several traders from Salem, Namakkal, Theni, Madurai, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli and as well as from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh came on Thursday to buy cattle.

However, in view of Model Code of Conduct, the flying squad, who were involved in checks in Pallipalayam and Karungalpalayam areas, seized over Rs 22 lakh from them.

Even though the traders claimed that they had come to buy cattle and couldn’t furnish any receipts to prove source of money, the officials refused to heed, citing norms and asked them to meet senior authorities in Erode Collector’s office. As traders couldn’t get a favourable response, they resorted to a sit-in protest at the premises.

Erode Town police arrived to prevent any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, S Santhakumar, District Revenue Officer (DRO) of Erode asked the election wing staff to return the money to traders. In a a separate incident, the flying squad sleuths seized Rs 35 lakh from one Harish, 24 while he was bound to Coimbatore in a KSRTC bus Karnataka, in Erode.