Rajasthan: Drugs, Liquor Worth Rs 227 Crore Seized Since March 16 Ahead Of Lok Sabha Polls

Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, enforcement agencies in Rajasthan have seized drugs, liquor, precious metals, freebies and illegal cash worth approximately Rs 227 crore in March so far.

The value of items seized since March 16, when the Model Code of Conduct came into force, is more than Rs 129 crore, Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta said on Saturday.

"Agencies in the state are keeping a strict vigil on suspicious items and illegal use of money for the purpose of influencing the election," he said.

Since March, Rs 11.25 crore in cash, drugs worth around Rs 17.49 crore, liquor worth about Rs 7.5 crore and precious metals like gold and silver worth Rs 22.64 crore have been seized.

These are in addition to the seizure of other materials worth approximately Rs 66.96 crore and freebies worth more than Rs 55.60 lakh, the senior official said.

Mr Gupta informed that items or cash worth more than Rs 10 crore each have been seized in seven districts - Jodhpur, Pali, Jaipur, Udaipur, Bhilwara, Ganganagar and Barmer.

Elections to the 25 Lok Sabha seats of Rajasthan will be held in two phases on April 19 and April 26.

Bypolls to the Bagidora Assembly seat under the Banswara Lok Sabha constituency will also be held on April 26. The seat fell vacant after Congress MLA Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya switched over to the BJP a few days back.

Mr Malviya is contesting the Lok Sabha election as the BJP candidate from the Banswara seat.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)