New Delhi: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has carried out an intensive checking and keeping extra vigil at Railway stations across the country in view of the 2024 Lok Sabha (LS) polls to stop the transporting of illegal money, liquor and arms.
"Since the general election has been announced, during the checking RPF has seized cash, gold, silver, contraband and drugs from the passengers at various stations", a senior RPF official, on condition of anonymity, told ETV Bharat on Monday. As per RPF sources, the RPF personnel has seized a total of Rs 21.87 crore items including cash, drugs, contraband, gold, silver and arms & ammunition.
Around Rs 3.48 crore of cash, drugs of Rs 12 crore, contraband worth Rs 55 lakh (especially ganja), gold and silver of Rs 4.19 crore and other various items have been seized by the RPF personnel between March and April this year, sources added.
Besides these items, several arms and ammunition were seized in eight cases in different stations, sources added.
If the passengers, who want to carry valuable items with them during travel then they have to keep a complete record of them which they have to provide during the checking done by the security agencies, sources added.
The RPF personnel conduct intensive checks at Railway stations as well as trains on board if they get information about any suspected person or luggage.
Sources said that extra RPF personnel have been deputed at stations to keep surveillance over suspected passengers who carry illegal items. In addition, keeping the extra vigil on suspects and their luggage scanning machines and metal detectors have also been put on strategic places and entry gates of the stations.
