83 crores cash, 7 lakh litre of liquor seized in poll-bound states

New Delhi: Over Rs. 83 crore cash, 7 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs. 12.65 crore and narcotics valued at Rs. 10.30 crore have been seized, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, by Election Commission-appointed surveillance and expenditure monitoring teams in the five poll-bound states.

As per official data compiled since the announcement of polls early this year till yesterday, Uttar Pradesh has witnessed the maximum seizure of Rs. 79.13 crore (Rs. 31.65 lakh in old notes) followed by Rs. 4.05 crore from Punjab, Rs. 33.27 lakh in Uttarakhand and Rs. 6.95 lakh in Manipur.

In other illegal incentives suspected to be used to lure voters in these states, a whopping 7.36 lakh litres of liquor and over 500 bottles of canned beer worth Rs. 12.65 crore has been seized by Election Commission-appointed police and state excise teams in these states.

In UP, these seizures were recorded at 3.95 lakh litres worth Rs. 10.7 crore followed by 3,09,351 litres spirits worth Rs. 1.14 crore seized in Punjab, over 25,907 litres worth Rs. 72.91 lakh in Uttarakhand, 4,605 litres worth Rs. 7.5 lakh in Manipur and beer and other hard spirits worth Rs. 1.35 lakh in Goa.

PTI