The Manpada Police on Sunday took a couple of NCP activists into custody and seized a cash of `1.21 lakh at Dombivli in neighbouring Thane district, after they found that the party activists were seen allegedly distributing money to local autorickshaw drivers for putting up party’s lok Sabha candidate’s posters on the rear side of their vehicles.
Acting on a call from an anonymous person who informed the Manpada police station that money was being distributed outside the office of NCP’s lok Sabha candidate from Kalyan Anand Paranjpe, a police team that rushed to the scene found a huge crowd of autorickshaw drivers and party activists outside Paranjpe’s office.
A search of auto drivers revealed cash packets on their person. The police seized a total cash of `1.21 lakh from the NCP activists and autorickshaw drivers whom they searched.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the NCP activists were in the midst of distributing cash to auto drivers for putting up Paranjpe’s campaign posters. The police have taken a couple of NCP activists and are probing if the cash was distributed on Paranjpe’s instructions.
Paranjpe is the son of late Thane Shiv Sena leader Prakash Paranjpe. Paranjpe joined the NCP in 2012 after he was sidelined in the Sena unit of Thane. A two-time Sena MP, Paranjpe is contesting the lok Sabha polls from Kalyan constituency, where he is pitted against Thane Sena chief Eknath Shinde’s son Shrikant Shinde.