HOWRAH: Three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand were arrested on Sunday in West Bengal's Howrah district after a huge amount of cash was recovered from their vehicle, a senior police officer said.
An amount of Rs 49 lakh in cash in denominations of Rs 500 was recovered from their SUV, which was intercepted on National Highway-16 at Ranihati in the Panchla police station area on Saturday evening, he said. The vehicle intercepted had a board displaying "MLA Jamtara, Jharkhand’’.
MLAs Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari, and two other persons, including their driver, were arrested after they failed to answer the police as to why they were carrying such a huge amount of cash, he added.
The state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has taken over the investigation from the Howrah Rural Police, he said.
During interrogation, the MLAs said they had come to Kolkata to buy sarees at a cheap price from Burrabazar market to distribute among tribal women on Tribal Day on August 9 in their respective constituencies.
The MLAs claimed that they were not able to procure an adequate number of sarees and so, had decided to go to Mandarmani for a holiday. They also had a plan to return to Kolkata to procure more sarees.
They could not state the reason for carrying such a huge amount of cash, the senior police officer said.
"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 PTI.
The five persons, including the MLAs, have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including that for criminal conspiracy, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, he said.
The arrests were made after the MLAs were questioned throughout the night, the officer said.
The Congress has alleged that the BJP was trying to topple its coalition government with Hemant Soren's JMM in Jharkhand with the help of these MLAs.
Each MLA was allegedly being offered Rs 10 crore in cash and a ministerial berth if the BJP forms government in the state.
The BJP has rubbished the allegations, claiming that the Congress was defaming it to hide corruption within the party.
(With inputs from Pronab Mondal and PTI)