MUMBAI, Jan. 15 -- Election flying squads on Wednesday afternoon seized 54 envelopes, containing Rs.1,000 each, from an unclaimed piece of luggage at Pratiksha Nagar, Sion. "When the enforcement teams landed there, the people handling the cash fled, leaving the money behind," said an official involved in monitoring violations of the model code of conduct. "Locals protested when the election teams tried to take the money away, and additional police teams from Govandi's police stations had to be summoned to take custody of the cash. It will now be handed over to the income-tax department." The official added that another Rs.20 lakh was recovered on Tuesday evening from an Innova at a checkpoint opposite the Trauma Care Hospital at Jogeshwari. So far, Rs.3.41 crore in cash has been seized across the city, apart from 1,540 litres of liquor worth Rs.9,84,620 and 57 kg of drugs worth Rs.44 crore. While the official seizures of cash are not huge, friction between party workers over allegations of cash disbursements has escalated. Anil Patankar of the Shiv Sena (UBT) accused party workers of Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena of disbursing Rs.1,000 to each of the households at Ghatla Village, Chembur, on Tuesday evening. "We caught youngsters red-handed while they were distributing the money," he said. "Three of the four fled the scene while one Ram Pawar was detained. However, the police released him late at night, citing lack of evidence. Since the men who had the money in their pockets had fled, there was no official cash seized." Patankar's wife Meenakshi Patankar is the Sena (UBT) candidate from Ward 173. She is up against Tanvi Kate, the daughter-in-law of Tukaram Kate, the Chembur MLA from the Shinde Sena. Patankar has now handed over video footage as evidence of the alleged cash disbursement to the Election Commission officials and demanded action. In Borivali, MNS party workers surrounded the office of BJP candidate Seema Shinde at Rajendra Nagar, Borivali (W). "The MNS workers accused our partymen and used bad language against the lady candidate," claimed Borivali MLA Sanjay Upadhyay. "Our candidate and a few party workers were merely having dinner together at their election office. There was no cash seized; this was purely a stunt." The official involved in checking code violations said that his department had received lots of tip-offs in the past two days. "However, unless there is cash seized, no case can be filed on account of lack of evidence," he said. "About 329 teams are moving across the city to monitor such activities, including a dedicated team for verifying video evidence submitted to us."...