The police on Monday seized cash of Rs 8,27,500 from Jay Dholkia, nephew of Rajendra Dholkia, who is seeking re-election from the Nuapada Assembly constituency as the candidate of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
Two Demo EVMs were also seized by the police from him. The money and the machines were seized by the Reserve Police under the leadership of Nuapada Superintendent of Police Umashankar Dash while Jay Dholkia was going towards Khariar Road from Nuapada by a jeep.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the money was supposed to be distributed among voters in the Khariar Road area. Jay was not able to give proper explanations for the source of the money. Initially, he said the money belonged to a private English medium school run by his uncle Rajendra Dholkia. He reportedly told the police that the school authorities had taken the money as loan from him, which they have repaid now.
But the police investigation revealed that Jay has not dealt with such a huge amount in past one year through his bank account. The maximum amount of transaction per month is between Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000. Jay was also unable to explain properly about the source of the money he gave as loan to the school.
The Nuapada SP informed that a multi-agency investigation is going on to get the truth. Income Tax department officials are also investigating the case. “We are trying our best to monitor the movement of money during elections,” district Collector Jaykumar V said.