Kadapa, April 13: Police seized Rs 63.50 lakh in searches across Kadapa district on Tuesday, a day after confiscating Rs 27.90 lakh allegedly meant for distribution among voters ahead of the May 8 by-elections.
According to official sources, a person claiming to be an assistant general manager of a sugar company was caught carrying Rs 55 lakh at PP Kunta check-post. He identified himself as P Prabhakara Reddy and told Badvel CI Ulasaiah that he was on his way from Nellore to Mydakur to pay some outstanding amount to sugarcane farmers.
But he couldn’t produce documentary evidence to prove his claims. The police grilled him, pointing out that farmers in Mydakur had transported their produce to the sugar companies in January itself.
Finding his faltering replies evasive at best, the cops seized the cash.
In a similar incident at G Reddivaripalle in Sundupalle mandal, the police seized Rs 8.5 lakh from the possession of five persons posing as banana merchants from Piler in Chittoor district. The five, identified as S Akthar, S Reddibasha, Bhadar Basha, Bavaji and Altaf, informed the cops that they were headed to Rajampet to settle payments for banana growers.
As they didn’t have documentary proof, the police seized the cash.
With the model code of conduct in force, the police have been on high alert and intensified checking especially on the district borders to prevent the flow of money into the poll-bound Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula Assembly constituencies.
With allegations flying thick and fast from all the political parties that money was being freely distributed, the police have been on tenterhooks.
–Agencies