Police seize INR 5 lakh in government vehicle used as flying squad for Nagaland election

Nagaland Police on Tuesday detained a government vehicle — used as a flying squad for the state election — for carrying an unaccounted cash of INR 5 lakh near the Second World War Cemetery in Kohima.

The person driving the government vehicle belonging to a senior officer could not provide a “satisfactory explanation” for carrying the amount, an update from the PHQ stated.

After following the due procedure, the seized cash was handed over to the Election Expenditure Monitoring Committee, Kohima.

In a separate incident, the police also seized INR 1.5 lakh of unaccounted cash at Chazouba, 975 kg of areca nuts and IMFL.

It may be mentioned that the permissible limit cash that can be carried during the election period is INR 50, 000 and those without valid documents could be seized.

The Nagaland Police led by the DGP has been conducting a state-wide exercise of checking government and police vehicles to prevent its misuse in violation of the Mode Code of Conduct.

“The exercise was necessitated by inputs that some elements may either be using government vehicles or private vehicles with fake government number plates or stickers like ‘On Election Duty’ to vitiate the election process,” it stated.

Many government vehicles of Senior Officers of the State/Central Government were checked including the escorts accompanying Special Police Election Observers en route to Mokokchung, the update added.

The exercise was conducted in all the districts of the State wherein all the Senior Officers of Nagaland Police along with SST, FST and CAPF Officers also participated. The Nagaland Police added that it will endeavour to implement the MCC without any prejudice.

Further, the exercise will continue till the election process is over so that the elections are held in a free and fair manner.