The suspected use of black money in Bihar’s Assembly poll campaigns has started surfacing due to heightened police alertness across the state. Four people were arrested on Sunday while carrying `2.9 lakh in cash in a car two days after a ruling JD(U) candidate was arrested with over `8 lakh in cash.
While police officials said the high sums of unaccounted-for cash being seized in Bihar in recent weeks could be hawala money, they also suspect that money illegally collected from welfare schemes by politicians at different levels was coming out for use in the election campaigns. Sources in the police said the Election Commission of India’s strict directions to measure campaign expenditure and take suitable action have changed the way such money is being spent.
The ruling JD(U)’s candidate for Narkatia Assembly constituency in East Champaran district, Shyam Bihari Prasad, a sitting MLA, was arrested with Rs 8.10 lakh in cash in a hotel in Motihari on Friday. The cash was kept in a suitcase and the MLA and his men present during the raid had no intelligible explanation about the source and destination of the money.
The MLA was taken into custody for violating the model code of conduct for elections by possession of such cash, said SP Paras Nath, but was later released on furnishing a bail bond because the offence was bailable under provisions of the Representation of the People Act. In Purnea, four people were arrested on Sunday as the police found `2.9 lakhs in the Maruti 800 car they were in.