3 Jharkhand Congress MLAs suspended after ₹49 lakh cash seized in Bengal

The cash from MLAs has been seized at a time when Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested.

Published on: Jul 31, 2022, 12:38:14 IST

By HT News Desk | Edited by Swati Bhasin, New Delhi

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Three Jharkhand MLAs - who were caught with cash worth ₹49 lakh in Bengal on Saturday - have now been suspended by the Congress. The action on MLAs comes just days after Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested after cash worth ₹21 crore was recovered from his aide Arpita Mukherjee's home by the Enforcement Directorate amid probe for Bengal school jobs case. Mukherjee was arrested too.

Police said the cash will be counted once machines come. (ANI Twitter)

The Congress MLAs who have been suspended are Irfan Ansari, MLA from Jamtara, Rajesh Kachhap, MLA of Khijri, and Naman Bixal Kongari, MLA of Kolebira. Jharkhand Congress incharge Avinash Pande made the big announcement at a press conference, and said the party wanted to set a precedent by taking strict action.

During the briefing Congress's Pawan Khera attacked the BJP, and accused the rival party of targeting legislators to topple governments. "Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Goa and now Jharkhand. BJP sets an example of its low level of politics every month."

"The government has a function due to which it is brought to power. It is not the government's job to think about how to come to power at the place of work where he has lost the election. Modi ji and Amit Shah ji may not understand this thing," he added.

On Saturday night, the legislators were travelling in a vehicle when they were intercepted about 30 km west of Kolkata. “Acting on specific information, we intercepted the vehicle. There were three MLAs from Jharkhand in the vehicle. There was huge amount of cash in the vehicle. We are bringing in currency note counting machines. The legislators are being questioned,” Swati Bhangalia, superintendent of police, Howrah (rural) was quoted as saying in an HT report. They were questioned overnight.

Amid the hours-long questioning, the legislators were reported to have told cops that they had planned to buy the sarees from Kolkata's wholesale market at Burrabazar where rates are reasonable

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