Probe sought into cash seized from police vehicle

IAS officer and Special Officer (Enforcement) Munish Moudgil has recommended to the Election Commission to conduct a thorough investigation into the case of seizure of cash in a police vehicle during the recently concluded elections at Holenarasipura in Hassan district.

An Income Tax team had seized cash to the tune of Rs 1.2 lakh from a police vehicle (Innova vehicle No KA MH 01 4477) during a raid at Holenarasipura town on April 16. “The said vehicle belongs to Bengaluru City Police and registered in the name of Deputy Commissioner of Police, CAR HQ, Bengaluru. The above incident is extremely serious as it, prima facie, reveals use of police vehicles for carrying money for misuse in elections,” Moudgil stated in a report submitted to Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, recently.

Public Works Minister H D Revanna is the JD(S) MLA from Holenarasipura Assembly constituency. His son Prajwal Revanna is contesting as the JD(S)-Congress alliance candidate from Hassan parliamentary constituency.

Moudgil has also said in his report that the case needs to be investigated by an independent team and supervised by a senior police officer of impeccable integrity and credentials due to possible involvement of policemen.

Officials questioned

In Hassan, Regional Commissioner Anil Kumar and ADGP Raghavendra Auradkar conducted an inquiry into the case in the presence of District Electoral Officer Priyanka Mary Francis, also Deputy Commissioner, on Tuesday.

They questioned police personnel, Income-Tax department officials and Holenarsipur police regarding the case. They watched the video of cash seizure.