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Bengal court sends Jharkhand Congress legislators to CID’s custody for ten days
The West Bengal police on Sunday arrested three Jharkhand Congress MLAs, a day after cash amounting to ₹49 lakh was seized from their vehicle in Howrah district, officials said on Sunday.
The West Bengal police on Sunday arrested three Jharkhand Congress MLAs, a day after cash amounting to ₹49 lakh was seized from their vehicle in Howrah district, officials said on Sunday.
The trio – Irfan Ansari (Jamtara), Rajesh Kachchap (Khijri) and Naman Bixal Kongari (Kolebira) – were sent to custody of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which has taken over the case, for 10 days by a Howrah court later in the day. They have been booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), including criminal conspiracy, and sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.
The MLAs, who were detained on Saturday, were interrogated overnight at Panchla police station in Howrah. They were travelling in Ansari’s official vehicle when they were intercepted, the officials cited above said on condition of anonymity.
The vehicle driver and an aide of Ansari were also arrested and remanded in CID custody for 10 days.
According to officials, Ansari’s lawyers told the court that Bengal police have booked the MLAs under IPC even though the issue of source of income comes under jurisdiction of the Income Tax department.
Bengal police said they intercepted the MLAs’ vehicle on the basis of a tip-off that huge amounts of cash was being transported in three vehicles. There was, however, no trace of the other two vehicles, one of the officials cited above said.
The legislators claimed they arrived in Bengal by car on Friday and were carrying the money to purchase sarees from Burrabazar wholesale market in Kolkata for distribution at an upcoming tribal festival in Jharkhand, a second official said.
The MLAs also said that they were planning to spend the Sunday at Mandarmani in East Midnapore and return to Kolkata on Monday for shopping, the official added.
“The probe revealed that the trio took a Guwahati-bound flight on Friday and returned to Kolkata on Saturday hours before their detention. While Ansari claimed that he visited Assam to talk to a school administration for a student’s admission, the other two legislators did not have any plausible explanation to offer,” a Bengal police officer said on condition of anonymity.
“There were discrepancies in their statements as well,” the officer added.
The revelation that the MLAs flew to Guwahati before returning to Kolkata came amid Congress’s allegations that the trio were conspiring with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to topple the coalition government in Jharkhand.
