Hyderabad: In the midst of the Telangana election campaign, the Election Commission has started taking precautionary measures to curb excessive flow of money. While the campaign is in full flow with various parties busy campaigning across constituencies, the EC has roped in its special election squad to conduct raids in suspicious instances. In this context, the squad conducted raids at Guru Nanak Engineering College at Ibrahimpatnam on Monday and has recovered Rs 27 lakh worth cash from the leaders of a political party.

According to reports, the election squad caught the cash in Adibhatla Village Deputy Sarpanch Gopal Goud's vehicle. At the time of the raids, Gopal Goud was believed to be transporting the cash to use them in the campaign. Opposition parties alleged that Gopal Goud is a close associate of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) former MLA Manchireddy Kishan Reddy.

Meanwhile the TRS leader claimed that he had gone to buy two acres of land near Polepalli in Chinthapalli Mandal and that the owner of the land had cancelled the sale registration at the last minute as he was unwell. He was returning from the Registrar's office with the cash, when he was caught by the officials, he claimed. The Rs 27.35 lakhs were drawn from HDFC and SBI Bank accounts for which he had proof and proper IT documentation, he asserted.

The local RDO said that a case would be filed after proper verification by the IT authorities as to whether the cash in the car was legal or black money. He added that the District Collector has been informed of the case.

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