Squad finds Rs 1.99 cr in car door, seats

In what could be one of the major seizures in this poll season, officials on Tuesday night had to check the car of a Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) functionary several times to find the cash amounting to Rs 1.99 crore, which was concealed in the doors and seats of the vehicle.

In a follow up action on Wednesday, Income Tax officials raided the private firm owned by Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi traders’ wing functionary at Mannarpuram in Tiruchy.

Election officials were inspecting vehicles near a toll plaza at Perali in Perambalur district intercepted a car heading towards Ariyalur. Since they had received a tip-off that cash was being transported, the officials searched the vehicle but could not find the cash. Then they took the car to the Perambalur Collectorate for a thorough inspection. A few attempts initially failed ant the officials finally found the cash in the denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 concealed in the doors and seats of the vehicle.

The money and the car were handed over to the Income tax department. It was later identified that two of the four persons apprehended, included VCK functionaries Prabakaran and S Thangadurai. Acting on the information obtained during their interrogation, the IT officials on Wednesday morning searched the premises of a private company, owned by VCK’s trader’s wing functionary Raja, from where the money was transported. The raid went on till late in the evening. Perali falls under the Kunnam Assembly segment, which is part of Chidambaram Lok Sabha constituency from where VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan is contesting.

Flying squad officials seized Rs 3.47 crore in cash abandoned in a government bus near Harur in Dharmapuri district on Wednesday.

The officials intercepted the bus bound to Harur from Tiruvannamalai and carried out a routine check. They found seven bags kept under the seats. The officials opened the bags and found cash bundles in the denomination of Rs 500 and 2,000. The money was then handed over to the District Election Officer and the bus was taken to the government treasury. Police suspect that the money was being transported by political parties to bribe voters. While huge amounts of money are usually smuggled only in cars and vans, this is the first such instance of a government bus being used. On suspicion, the police have taken into custody Selvaraj, who was travelling in the bus.