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Flying squad seizes over 1350 kg of gold a day ahead of polls in TN

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A day ahead of Tamil Nadu going to polls, 1,381 kilograms of gold was found in the state’s Thiruvallur district. According to the police, the gold was intercepted by a flying squad on Wednesday. The gold was found in a tempo van travelling with four people, including the driver. The four have been arrested. 

Speaking to TNM, Thiruvallur Superintendent of Police R Ponni said, “1380 kg of gold has been seized by the flying squad. There are nine flying squads operating in Thiruvallur district. The Poonamallee squad was on duty when they found this vehicle with gold. The persons in the vehicle have given us documents that need to be verified. The car was heading to Tirupati. it was a normal vehicle with 25 kg packets of gold.”

The Executive Officer of the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam (TTD) later confirmed that the gold belonged to the TTD and that it was in a safe deposit with the Punjab National Bank and was on its way back to their Treasury. 

Gold did belong to #TTD; it was in safe deposit with #PNB and on its way back to our Treasury, confirms #EO of #TirumalaTirupatiDevasthanam

— Uma Sudhir (@umasudhir) April 17, 2019

Tamil Nadu’s Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo announced earlier in the day that a total of Rs 138 crore cash has been seized in the state so far. The Income Tax Department has separately seized Rs 56 crore. Precious metal, liquors and drugs have also been seized. The state continues to top the list with the highest amount of cash seizures across the country. 

On Tuesday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) cancelled elections in the Vellore Parliamentary constituency in Tamil Nadu. Vellore became the first constituency in India where a Lok Sabha election has been cancelled because of cash for votes.

The ECI made the announcement on Tuesday based on a report submitted by the Income Tax department on the cash seized in Vellore. Two weeks ago, more than Rs 11 crore was seized from a cement godown, money which a local DMK functionary later disclosed belonged to him. The EC had written to the President, recommending cancellation.

Source: The News Minute