Lucknow: Cash amounting to Rs 3 crore was recovered from the car of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Ghaziabad on Thursday, police said.

The car was coming from Delhi and was headed for Lucknow, an official told IANS. The car had a Haryana number plate (HR 26 AR 9662).

The Maruti Swift model car was intercepted at Indirapuram when the driver tried to break through a police barricade.

The police personnel on the spot chased the car and on checking found the cash in the boot. The car is registered in the name of Ajeet Mishra of Gurgaon and two persons, Siddhartha Shukla and Anoop Agarwal, were travelling in the car at the time of the cash recovery.

The two said the money belonged to them and that they were taking it to deposit it in the party fund in Lucknow.

The police informed the Income Tax department, and IT officials are trying sdzazto confirm the source of the money.

Meanwhile, former president of Ghaziabad city BJP Ashok Monga reached the police station and certified, on a letter pad, that the money was being "sent by the BJP Central Office to BJP state office in Lucknow for party activities".

The certificate also mentions that Anoop Agarwal, carrying the money, was a worker of the party and had been authorised to carry the money to the Uttar Pradesh state capital.