The Jharkhand MLAs’ arrest case has taken a scandalous turn with senior officers of Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) suggesting that the cash recovered from their vehicle had its origin in Kolkata, but it was actually sourced from Assam, “perhaps through hawala route”.
Three Jharkhand Congress MLAs Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal were on Saturday arrested by the CID after the officials intercepted their vehicle and recovered Rs 49 lakh from it.
According to the officers, the Jharkhand MLAs had come to Kolkata twice on the pretext of purchasing clothes for some Adivasi festival.
“For the first time they came on July 20 … then they came on July 29… from here they went to Guwahati, where they met the Assam Chief Minister through a very senior BJP leader … then they came back to Kolkata,” the officials said, adding there was a “big game plan”.
The Congress leaders who had since been suspended from their party were approached by the BJP leadership to engineer defection in the Jharkhand Government, sources quoting the officials said.
For this Rs 10 crore was promised to each of the defecting MLAs. Besides a “very senior position” was also promised to Ansari, sources said.
“The legislators told their handlers in Assam that 13 more MLAs would be willing to defect for which they needed some token amount,” sources said, adding the money recovered from their vehicle could be a part of that token amount.
In Kolkata the MLAs had gone to a hotel for half-an-hour reportedly to use the toilet, sources said adding “during the stay in the hotel a Congress worker went out on a scooter and brought back cash from a share trading company at Bikaner Building near Lalbazar police headquarters in Kolkata. The officials suspect hawala links to the money.