Rs 10cr, ministerial berth to each MLA for toppling Jkhand govt: Cong; BJP says attempt to hide own wrong doing
The Congress on Sunday alleged the BJP was trying to topple the JMM-led government in Jharkhand by offering Rs 10 crore to each MLA, and lodged a police complaint against its three legislators arrested in West Bengals Howrah with a huge amount of cash.
Acting on a tip-off, the West Bengal Police on Saturday evening intercepted a sports utility vehicle in which Congress MLAs – Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari – were travelling, and allegedly found nearly half a crore of rupees in cash in the vehicle. After questioning, they were formally arrested on Sunday afternoon.
Rejecting the Congress charge, BJP spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam in Delhi accused the grand old party of shifting the blame for its own legislators wrong-doing and made the counter-claim that Jharkhand has become a “den of corruption”.
Addressing a press conference at Ranchi, Congress minister Alamgir Alam earlier in the day said the partys Bermo MLA Kumar Jaimangal has lodged a police complaint against the three legislators for allegedly luring other MLAs by offering Rs 10 crore each and a ministerial berth to help the BJP form a government in the state.
“Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari were asking me to come to Kolkata and were offering money, promising Rs 10 crore per MLA. Ifran Ansari and Rajesh Kachchap wanted to take me to Guwahati from Kolkata where according to them a meeting was fixed with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma,” Jaimangal claimed.
After filing the complaint at the Argora police station in Ranchi, he said he has sought action against the three MLAs under Section 7(C) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC Section 120 (B), which deals with criminal conspiracy.
He said he has urged the police to check criminal activities detrimental to the health of democracy.
An officer of the Argora police station said since the cash was recovered in West Bengal, they were transferring the matter to the neighbouring state.
The Congress, which is a part of the JMM-led government in Jharkhand along with Lalu Prasads RJD, has already suspended the three MLAs.
Senior BJP Jharkhand leader Babulal Marandi also claimed the Congress has conspired to defame his party by filing a false police complaint to hide its own sins.
“This is shameful and ridiculous. They do not trust their own MLAs. They are trying to hide the corruptions and misdeeds of their MLAs,” said Marandi, a former chief minister. Bengal police officers said the three MLAs and two other persons, including their driver, were arrested after they failed to answer the police the reason for carrying Rs 49 lakh in cash while travelling in a SUV on National Highway 16 through Howrah district, near Kolkata.
“They could not explain the reason for carrying such a huge amount of cash. We are not satisfied by their claim that they came here to purchase sarees meant to be distributed among tribal women. We have arrested them for further investigation,” the officer told
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
