The three Jharkhand Congress MLAs who were held with a mountain of cash in West Bengal were suspended from the party with immediate effect on Sunday (July 31, 2022). Avinash Pande, General Secretary and In-charge of the Jharkhand Congress made the announcement.
On Saturday, police stopped an SUV carrying Congress MLAs Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap, and Naman Bixal Kongari on national highway-16 in Ranihati, Howrah, and discovered a large amount of cash inside.
Swati Bhangalia, Superintendent of Police (Rural) in Howrah, stated, “We had specific inputs that a huge amount of money was being transported in a black car. We started checking the vehicles and intercepted this SUV in which three Jharkhand MLAs were travelling. A huge amount of cash was found in the vehicle,”
“Cash counting machines are being brought in to ascertain the total amount. The MLAs are also being questioned about the source of the money and where it was being taken to,” she added.
According to police, there were two other people in the SUV, which carried a sign that said “MLA Jamtara Jharkhand” and the Congress’ election symbol.
Ansari represents Jamtara, Kachchap represents Khijri in Ranchi district, and Kongari represents Kolebira in Simdega district.
Earlier on Saturday, the Congress accused the BJP of attempting to destabilise its coalition government in Jharkhand after three of its MLAs were found with large sums of cash in Howrah. The grand old party stated that the BJP’s game plan in Jharkhand is to replicate what they did in Maharashtra.
“Tonight, in Howrah, the BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ in Jharkhand is exposed. The ‘Hum Do’ game plan in Delhi is to replicate in Jharkhand what they did in Maharashtra by installing an E-D duo “Jairam Ramesh, general secretary of the Congress, stated on Twitter.
The Jharkhand Congress also claimed that the large sum of money was part of a BJP plot to destabilise the Hemant Soren government, which it shares with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal.