I-T dept to help EC prevent illegal fund flow during polls

Special intelligence units of the I-T department will be set up at all the airports,railway stations and other important locations which the I-T department and Election Commission consider necessary.

“At the airports,the department will function with the assistance of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) which performs the luggage screening of passengers. If anybody is found carrying a sum of Rs 20,000 or more,the intelligence unit will be alerted and the concerned person will be under our scanner since then. He will be interrogated and if he cannot explain the source of the money,he might be detained,” said T BC Rozaro,I-T Director General (Investigation,East). He added that the amount Rs 20,000 is just an indicative one,and will be considered in genuine cases like treatment,marriage,and others.

Rozaro further said the illegal cash could be in two forms ¿ it could either be legitimate and properly accounted money,which is going to be used for the purpose of influencing voters,or it could be unaccounted money. The first case being a criminal offence,the concerned person will be handed over to the police,and in the second case,the unaccounted money will be seized by the Intelligence Unit.

Similar units will also be set up at important railway stations of the state. IT authorities admitted that the task will be difficult there as no X-ray machines are set up on the railway stations. “We will operate mainly on the basis of prior information and frisk only suspected people. General passengers will not be harassed,” said Biswanth Jha,IT Director,(Investigation,Kolkata).

Armed with information from Intelligence Bureau,State Intelligence Unit and Financial Intelligence Unit,IT department will carry out operations at highways and five-star hotels also.

“We have already set up units at the airports. But manpower has to be increased and all these measures will be stringently applied from the day the poll dates are declared and will continue till the end of election,” said Rozaro.

Also,from the day of poll date announcement,a round-the-clock control room will be set up at the office of the Directorate of Investigation and in every district,senior I-T department officials will be posted to collect information about the movement of illicit cash.

“We hope that once these steps are implemented,people will be more careful regarding money transactions during the elections,” said Rozaro.