The Congress party on Sunday suspended three MLAs after the West Bengal Police found a huge amount of cash in their vehicle on Saturday.
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.
MONEY FOR GIFT BUYING
Irfan Ansari’s brother, Imran had claimed that efforts were made to frame his brother, adding that the cash was meant to buy ‘gifts for tribals’. “Like every year, this year also, these people had come from Jharkhand to Kolkata’s Bada Bazaar”. He added that every year his brother buys sarees for tribals from Bada Bazaar.
This recovery comes amid the seizure of a huge amount of cash at properties linked to Chatterjee, who is being investigated in the school jobs scam.
Crores of rupees in cash were found in apartments of his aide, Arpita Mukherjee, besides gold believed to be in kilograms, documents of properties and foreign exchange, forcing the TMC to suspend him and take away his ministerial portfolios.