Tamil Nadu election authorities had seized a cash of Rs.5.11 Cr in the wee hours of Tuesday from atop a bus parked at Ponnagar in Tiruchi. The area comes under the Tiruchi West assembly constituency.

Acting on a tip off, Returning officer for the constituency Ms. Sangeetha and her team of officials raided the bus stand at around 2 am and searched several buses. The officials found the cash in Rs. 500 and Rs.1000 denominations in five leather bags atop a bus.

Considered to be the single largest seizure of cash in the State in the run up to the Assembly elections, it was supposedly meant for distribution by a political party to influence voters.

When the officials were seizing the cash from the bus, some persons who were sitting in a car nearby fled immediately and efforts were on to trace them. Later, election officials along with police teams, searched two houses at Ponnagar and New Selva Nagar.

Officials have seized both the bus and the car and handed over the cash to the Income Tax Department officials.Meanwhile, Transport Minister K.N. Nehru, the DMK candidate contesting from Tiruch West, denied in a statement that the cash belonged to his relatives.