3 Jharkhand MLAs held, cash found in car

The three Jharkhand Congress MLAs were arrested on Saturday after they were found with a pile of cash in a car in West Bengal.

The Crime Investigation Department (CID) will take over the probe of the case, officials told the news agency PTI.

Police said the cash amount is around Rs 48 to 50 lakh but did not give the exact number.

However, they were suspended from the Congress Party on Sunday with immediate effect. The party had earlier sought to link it with the BJP, saying that the three leaders were given money to make the state government fall.

The BJP, however, said the money is proof of corruption in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress alliance government.

The Congress has alleged that the BJP was trying to topple the JMM-led government in Jharkhand by offering Rs10 crores to each MLA. It said it has lodged a police complaint against its three legislators arrested in West Bengal’s Howrah.

Addressing a press conference, Congress minister Alamgir Alam said the party’s Bermo MLA Kumar Jaimangal has lodged a police complaint against the three legislators for allegedly luring other MLAs by offering Rs. 10 crores each and a ministerial berth if the BJP forms government in the state.

“We have information on everyone. In the coming days, be it any public representative, party’s office bearer, or any worker, whoever is found connected or involved in this, the party will take action against them,” Avinash Pande, General Secretary and In-charge, Jharkhand Congress, had earlier said.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Delhi, Pande said Congress president Sonia Gandhi has suspended the three MLAs with immediate effect.

The MLAs -- Irfan Ansari from Jamtara, Rajesh Kachhap from Khijri, and Naman Bixal Kongari from Kolebira -- are being questioned by the Howrah Rural police about the source of the money.Acting on a tip-off, police on Saturday intercepted an SUV in which the Congress MLAs were travelling on national highway-16 at Ranihati in Howrah and allegedly found a huge amount of cash in the vehicle.

“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,” Bandhu Tirkey, Working President of Jharkhand Congress had alleged earlier.

“The only reason the MLAs were given money is to make the government fall,” he said.

However, the relatives of one of the MLAs Irfan Ansari have rebutted allegations that BJP is trying to destabilise the coalition government in Jharkhand, according to news agency PTI.

“The government cannot be brought down with just a meagre sum of Rs40-50 lakh,” they reportedly said, adding that he was in Howrah to “do shopping, especially of sarees” ahead of the upcoming festive season and thus, was carrying a huge chunk of cash.

The party’s communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh had claimed that the incident “exposed” the BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ in Jharkhand. “The game plan of ‘Hum Do’ in Delhi is to do in Jharkhand what they did in Maharashtra by installing E-D duo,” he wrote.

Dilip Ghosh, a senior BJP leader from Bengal, linked the Howrah action with an “investigation against corruption” in Jharkhand.