On Sunday afternoon, the West Bengal Police arrested three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand, who were allegedly found with huge amounts of cash in their car on Saturday, 30 July.
As per news agency ANI, the Howrah district court has now directed the three Jharkhand MLAs to be sent on police remand for 10 days.
The three MLAs are Irfan Ansari, MLA from Jamtara, Rajesh Kachhap, MLA from Khijri, and Naman Bixal, MLA from Kolebira. On Sunday, they were suspended from the Congress party.
As per West Bengal police, the three suspended Congress MLAs' SUV car was intercepted on NH-16 in Howrah, following a tip-off.
"We had specific inputs that a huge amount of money was being transported in a car. We started checking the vehicles, and intercepted this car in which the three MLAs were travelling. The MLAs are being questioned about the source of the money and where it was being taken," said Swati Bhangalia, Superintendent of Police, Howrah (Rural), to The Indian Express.
Hours after the arrest of the three leaders, Rajiv Kumar, the lawyer who filed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren over alleged mining irregularities, was also arrested by the Kolkata Police.
Meanwhile, another zero FIR was filed against the three suspended MLAs in Ranchi, Jharkhand, after a Congress MLA alleged that he was offered money by the trio to topple the government.
Colleague Alleges Attempt To Topple Jharkhand Govt, Himanta Involved
Based on a complaint filed by Congress MLA from Bermo, Kumar Jaimangal, the police have registered a zero FIR against the three MLAs. Jaimangal alleged that they offered him money "to topple the government."
The FIR will be transferred to Howrah, where they were arrested after cash was recovered from their possession, reported ANI.
Jaimangal submitted a complaint in Jharkhand's Ranchi. In the complaint copy, accessed by The Quint, the MLA has alleged that he was "offered Rs 10 crore and was told to meet Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati.
"In the complaint, Jaimangal claims that he didn't want to participate in this "unconstitutional, illegal and downright criminal" activity, and hence, he had filed the complaint.
He requested that action be taken against those trying to topple the Jharkhand government and that this criminal activity be stopped.
Complaint lodged by Kumar Jaimangal
Photo accessed by The Quint
'We Keep in Touch': What Himanta Said
Meanwhile, the Assam CM told the press, "Even topmost persons of Congress keep in touch with me. We don't talk about politics but being in a party for over 22 years, we keep in touch. I don't know why an FIR was filed on this."
In the letter, Jaimangal also alleges that he had met CM Biswa Sarma once, and was also assured a "ministerial berth." He says that Irfan Ansari – who is one of the three suspended MLAs – had already been promised the health ministry in the new government.
He also claims that Ansari assured him that Biswa Sarma "is doing it with the blessings of top shots of BJP" from Delhi.
Congress Calls It BJP's Operation Lotus, BJP Leaders Say Corruption Investigation
"It is in the BJP's nature to try and destabilise any government that's not theirs. The same has been done against CM Hemant Soren's government. The only reason the MLAs were given money is to make the government fall," said Bandhu Tirkey, working president of Jharkhand Congress to NDTV.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also tweeted on this matter, dubbing it "the BJP's operation lotus" and saying that the BJP wants to do in Jharkhand what they did in Maharashtra.
Bengal BJP's senior leader, Dilip Ghosh, said that this was the beginning of ED's "investigation against corruption."
(This story contains inputs from NDTV, ANI, and The Indian Express.)
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