Nalgonda, Telangana:

Gold worth Rs 573 crore has been seized by Telangana state’s Nalgonda police as part of vehicle checks ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, officials said.

The gold was seized from the jurisdiction of Miryalguda 1 town police station.

“The gold is being transported from Miryalguda to Kamam in vehicles. More details are awaited,” said Sudhakar, police officer of Miryalguda 1 town police station.

Addressing a press conference, Nalgonda Police Commissioner Chandana Deept said that as part of the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls was announced earlier this month, and the code will come into effect to Carry out inspections to prevent illegal transportation of cash and other valuables to lure voters, regional police are on tight alert and are organizing large-scale vehicle inspections, an official statement said.

Just like that, around 11.30 am on March 18, a police team led by police inspector G Sudhakar spotted three persons in a car traveling towards the Kodad side, the release added.

“When they inspected the vehicle, it was found that gold worth Rs 573 crore had been transported illegally in it in violation of ECI guidelines. Accordingly, based on a complaint lodged by Flying Squad, the accused and the gold have been detained and police have intervened to investigate,” the release said say.

The ECI announced several measures to eliminate misuse of money and force from the 2024 general elections.

Earlier, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that in order to curb the flow of illegal funds, the poll body has conducted an extensive review with law enforcement agencies.

CEC Kumar said: “Rajasthan, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Himachal Cash flows worth about Rs 3,400 crore have been restricted in the past 11 state assembly elections in the states of Gujarat and Tripura.”

Mr Kumar also pointed out that the tough challenges to conducting free and fair elections were “power, money, misinformation and MCC irregularities” and claimed that the poll panel had taken steps to address these damaging challenges.

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