PUNE: The state election commission's flying squad on Friday intercepted the car of senior BJP leader Ujjwal Keskar and recovered Rs10.5 lakh in demonetised currency notes, virtually embarrassing the party ahead of the Saswad municipal polls scheduled on December 14.Keskar was accompanied by a BJP youth wing member when his car was intercepted by the election commission's (EC's) squad on Kondhwa­Saswad Road (from the Bopdev ghat section) at Hiware village, around 40km from here, on Friday noon. The EC and the Saswad police prepared a panchanama and sent the report to the Pune district collector for further action.Keskar, the general secre tary of BJP in Pune, said he had all the supporting evidence to prove the cash belonged to him. “I was on my way to Panchgani -my native place -to deposit the cash in a bank. The banks in Pune are crowded and there are long queues to deposit cash. At Panchgani, banks are less crowded. So, I decided to deposit the money at a Panchgani bank,“ he said. Though Keskar did not explain why he took the Pune-Saswad route for Panchgani instead of the Pune-Satara highway , he said, “The EC and police might think that I was heading to Saswad to distribute the money among the voters, but it was not the case. It is my hard-earned money . I have all the bank statements to prove that the cash was mine and it was not of the party .“Keskar said he also owned the seized car.The travel time to Panchgani from Pune is around two hours.Taking a detour via Saswad could take another 30 minutes.Saswad police sub-inspector B S Bhagwat told TOI that EC and police authorities seized the demonetised currency notes of Rs500 and Rs1,000 denominations. “ As the elections are approaching, the EC has appointed flying squads in different parts of the Saswad municipal council to keep a check on malpractices by the candidates. The car was intercepted at the village after election returning officer (RO) received a tip-off,“ he said.The incident occurred ahead of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis ' rallies in the rural parts of the district. Fadnavis on Saturday conducted five rallies at Lonavla, Talegaon Dabhade, Alandi, Shirur and Baramati to campaign for the municipal council elections.“It was not known from where the cash was brought and for what purpose. The case will be investigated by the EC,“ Bhagwat said, adding that Keskar did not produce any evidence before police at the time of seizure.Bhagwat said police had prepared a detailed panchanama report and seized the cash as well as the car. He added that the RO also prepared a detailed report and sent it to the EC and the income tax department.Returning officer of Purandar Sanjay Asawale said the income tax department had been intimated about the amount seized and a report was expected from them for the further course of action. “Unless the report from the I-T department comes, we cannot take any action. As of now, the cash has been seized and the I-T officials have checked the details,“ Asawale told TOI.BJP city president Yogesh Gogawale said he was unaware about the incident. He said he would collect information from the people concerned and would then comment.