Cash for votes: Rs 9.93 lakh, incriminating documents recovered from Palghar hotel, says collector

Palghar: The district authorities in Palghar on Tuesday said that a police team comprising senior officials recovered Rs 9.93 lakh cash and some incriminating documents from the hotel where some BJP activists were allegedly distributing money.

The statement has come in the wake of Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) chief Hitendra Thakur's allegation that BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde was distributing money to voters in Palghar on the eve of the Maharashtra assembly elections.

Thakur had claimed Tawde had come to Virar to disburse Rs 5 crore to influence voters, and he was at a hotel.

A video on social media showed BVA workers confronting Tawde outside the hotel.

Tawde and the BJP, however, have denied the allegation. The BJP leader claimed he was in Nallasopara to provide guidance regarding election procedures and challenged the opposition parties to verify his activities.

District collector and election officer Govind Bodke said the election department received complaints from BVA activists that some BJP workers were distributing cash at a hotel in Virar.

Following this, the returning officer of Nalla Sopara and a police team, along with the joint police commissioner and two deputy police commissioners, searched the hotel and recovered Rs 9.93 lakh cash and some incriminating documents, the official said.

The collector, in a recorded message, confirmed that cases were registered for offences, including possession of cash, violation of the model code of conduct, and holding illegal press conferences.

The police were probing into the crimes, he said, without revealing against whom these offences were registered.