₹1,000 Crore Purge: ECI Seizures Break Records in Bengal and Tamil Nadu
New Delhi: Ahead of voting for assembly polls in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said its teams have made huge seizures which surpass Rs 1,000 crores in these two states. And though the overall seizures were higher in Tamil Nadu, more liquor was caught in West Bengal.
Overall Rs 127.67 crore of cash, 40.49 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 106.3 crore, drugs valued Rs 184.83, precious metals worth Rs 215.19 crore and freebies etc of Rs 437.97 crores were caught by the flying squads of the ECI
In TN, the ECI teams seized Rs 100.19 crore of cash, drugs worth Rs 76.72 crores, precious metals amounting to Rs 159.31 crore, freebies etc valued Rs 259.14 crore and 1.17 lakh litre liquor amounting to Rs 3.85 crore. All these totalled to Rs 599.24 crores.
In West Bengal liquor flowed more than money. Here 39.31 lakh litres of liquor was captured by flying squads which amounted to Rs 102.45 crore. The cash seized was Rs 27.48 crore, while drugs caught were of Rs 108.11 crore. Precious metals were of Rs 55.88 crore and freebies etc were worth Rs 178.33 crore
The ECI has deployed over 5,011 — 2,728 in WB and 2,283 in TN — flying squad teams across the two states to ensure that the complaints are attended to within 100 minutes. Besides this, over 5,363 (3,142 in WB and 2,221 in TN) Static Surveillance Teams (SSTs) have also been deployed for setting up surprise Nakas at different locations.
The Commission has stressed that the enforcement authorities should ensure that ordinary citizens are not inconvenienced or harassed during the checking and inspection for the enforcement of these directives.
Key Insights
- This topic is currently trending
- Experts are closely monitoring developments
- It may impact future decisions


