Bhubaneswar, July 18: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will probe the cases in which crores of rupees were seized by Income Tax (IT) department in Odisha during the election.
The ED will include entities and persons with seizure of over Rs 1 crore in its probe and has sought required documents from the IT department in this regard.
The central probe agency will initially interrogate Jajpur-based contractor Nihar Ranjan Mandhata and owner of Bhubaneswar-based Jain Media, a flex print media house.
The IT department officials had seized cash over Rs 3 crore from the SUV of a contractor from Jajpur town, Nihar Ranjan Mandhata, in the Suryanagar area of Bhubaneswar in May this year. Similarly, over Rs 4 crore was seized from Bhubaneswar-based Jain Media during IT raid before the election.
In another case, Rs 3.5 crore was seized from the house of a builder, Kumar Sarat, in May. Besides, these three cases, the ED will probe cases in which more that Rs 1 crore cash was seized by police, CBI and Customs department during implementation of Model Code of Conduct by the Election Commission of India.