In a shocking incident, currencies worth crores were gutted in fire after a truck carrying the notes caught fire in South Kashmir in the intervening night of Monday in Panzath area of Qazigund in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
The video which went viral on social media showed the truck bearing registration number: JK05- A8795, standing on the road with burnt currency lying in it. The truck was believed to be moving to Jammu from Srinagar. The currency notes that were found burnt at the site were of Rs 500 denomination.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNXpx-3px9I]
Though the matter is being investigated by the Jammu and Kashmir police it is of equal concern for the Election Commission as the illegal transfer for such huge amount amidst the ongoing Lok Sabha elections raises serious questions of a security breach.
According to the Jammu and Kashmir bureau chief, Mir Fareed, the police has been interrogating the driver and the conductor of the truck, who had a narrow escape after the vehicle caught fire.
Both the driver and conductor have said that they had no clue as to how such a huge cache of currencies came into their truck. The police are trying to investigate every possibility.
At this point, the focus of the investigation will definitely be on whether the cash was meant to be used during the poll campaigning and which party or candidate did it belong to.
Usually, illegal relocation of cash becomes rampant during every election season. In the latest, a video of the most innovative way of transporting illegal money this election season had surfaced where IT officials are seen pulling out wads of cash from the extra tire of a vehicle in Karnataka.
The data released by the Election Commission of India had revealed that the IT sleuths had seized cash and contraband amounting to over Rs 2,600 crores until April 17 of this year. This comes as a shocker, considering only two phases of 2019 Lok Sabha elections have concluded so far and the amount seized until now is already almost double of that seized during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
