Over 91pc seized Vellore cash in Rs 200 denomination; all sourced from one branch: IT dept report

Over 91 per cent of Rs 11.53 crore seized by Income Tax Department in Tamil Nadu's Vellore Lok Sabha constituency was in the denomination of Rs 200 and sourced from one bank branch in the district to allegedly bribe voters, a report prepared by the department's sleuths revealed.

President Ram Nath Kovind Tuesday ordered rescinding the notification to hold election to the seat based on an Election Commission recommendation after the "black money", allegedly linked to DMK candidate Kathir Anand, was seized by the department on the night of March 29-30.

The department's Chennai wing had submitted a report of this incident to the poll panel with a strong recommendation to cancel the election in Vellore as "incriminating" amount of black money was being pumped into the constituency to "lure maximum number of the voters" ahead of the April 18 election.

The damning report accessed by PTI said that out of the total Rs 11.53 crore cash seized by the tax department, "only Rs 99 lakh cash was in the higher denomination of Rs 2000 and Rs 500, while 10.5 crore was in the smaller currency of Rs 200."
A senior I-T official told the news agency that the "RBI found that the cash was sourced from a local Canara Bank branch cash chest."
The two cashiers who issued the banknotes were grilled by I-T department sleuths for long hours. It then came to light that their senior manager, based in the regional office, had ensured that this huge amount in lower denomination is supplied to the branch and further released to an alleged DMK-linked functionary who was not even an "income tax assessee."