Panchsheel Nagar:
The stakes are high in Uttar Pradesh, where elections will be held next month. Just how high can be seen by the enormous sums of money being seized almost everyday in the state - a total of Rs 28 crore has been confiscated so far. Today, the Election Commission seized about 10 crores from a van in Panchsheel Nagar district of western UP.
Panchsheel Nagar was earlier known as Hapur and is still better known by that name.
The police said those in the van were carrying money from an Axis Bank branch in Delhi's Jhandelwala to Moradabad in UP. But they did not have the necessary documents to carry a sum that large. An EC directive says that seizure is mandatory if a person is found carrying more than Rs 2.5 lakh without valid documents, once the model code of conduct is in place.
On Monday, Rs 13 crore was seized from a van in Ghaziabad and there have been similar seizures in Muzaffarnagar and Lakhimpur Kheri.