NEW DELHI: As a row erupted over Trinamool Congress‘s (TMC) claim of a “raid” by income tax officials on a helicopter meant for use by party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Election Commission sources clarified that checking or searching helicopters, as done in the case of ones used by Banerjee and also Congress’s Rahul Gandhi in Tamil Nadu on Monday, was a standard practice in line with the commission’s instructions to ensure inducement-free polls.
“Checking/search of helicopters is part of standard instructions of EC to keep elections inducement-free and it has led to huge amounts of seizures in the current elections. In the run-up to polls, all district magistrates, superintendents of police and enforcement agencies were told to keep a strict watch on airfields/helipads by ECI,” a senior EC officer told TOI.
The officer added that searches have been taking place in airfields, both public and private, across the country to ensure that inducements like cash, freebies etc are not ferried by air.
“Checking/search of helicopters is part of standard instructions of EC to keep elections inducement-free and it has led to huge amounts of seizures in the current elections. In the run-up to polls, all district magistrates, superintendents of police and enforcement agencies were told to keep a strict watch on airfields/helipads by ECI,” a senior EC officer told TOI.
The officer added that searches have been taking place in airfields, both public and private, across the country to ensure that inducements like cash, freebies etc are not ferried by air.
