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.
The general secretary and party in-charge of Jharkhand Congress, Avinash Pande said,”The three MLAs, who were held with a mountain of cash yesterday, have been suspended from the party with immediate effect.”
The three MLAs, Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari were travelling in an SUV on National Highway-16 at Ranihati when the police intercepted their vehicle.
Ansari is the MLA of Jamtara, while Kachchap is the legislator of Khijri in Ranchi district, and Kongari is the MLA of Kolebira in Simdega district.
Earlier, the Congress had accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to topple its coalition government, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress alliance, by poaching its MLAs.
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 suspended after cash worth ₹21 crore was recovered from his aide Arpita Mukherjee’s home by the Enforcement Directorate.
Three Congress MLAs who have been suspended are Irfan Ansari, MLA from Jamtara, Rajesh Kachhap, MLA of Khijri, and Naman Bixal Kongari, MLA of Kolebira.
On Saturday night, they 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.