Kolkata: The West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Monday conducted searches at the homes of two suspended Congress MLAs arrested last month in the alleged Rs 49 lakh cash haul case.
The raids on the premises of Irfan Ansari and Rajesh Kachhap in Ranchi, Jharkhand, allegedly led to the recovery of Rs 5 lakh from the latter’s home.
Ansari, Kachhap and Naman Bixal Kongari, all suspended Congress MLAs, have been arrested following a complaint from a fellow Congress legislator about their involvement in an alleged BJP conspiracy to topple the Jharkhand government.
The Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand is a coalition between the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Congress. Allegations have also been made about Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s involvement, but he has distanced himself from the matter.
The three MLAs were initially detained by Howrah Police who, said to be acting on a tip-off, intercepted them in Uluberia, close to Kolkata, on 30 July and allegedly discovered Rs 49 lakh in the trunk of their vehicle.
The case was transferred to the West Bengal CID the same day.
Complainant Bermo Kumar Jaimangal, also known as Anup Singh, was quizzed at the CID Headquarters in Kolkata for close to five hours Monday.
In July, the Jharkhand Congress MLA filed a written complaint at a Ranchi police station against the three arrested MLAs, claiming that he was offered a ministerial berth and crores in cash to help “topple the Jharkhand government”. He said the three were working in collusion with the BJP.
Speaking to ThePrint, Singh said he had told the CID details of an alleged attempt to topple the Jharkhand government. While he “couldn’t divulge details since the matter is under investigation”, he said he could be called again by the CID to record his statement before a magistrate.
The BJP has called the entire case “politically motivated”.
Bengal BJP leader Priyanka Tebriwal said the case was an attempt by the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) to distract from the “main issue” of the alleged SSC scam involving its former member Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee.
“The police were so alert that they arrested Jharkhand MLAs who had come to Kolkata for shopping with money, but they were clueless about its own state minister storing crores of money at a home of a close aide in the SSC scam?” she said. “This is a politically motivated case to divert attention from the main issue.”
The CID has not released any official statement on the matter so far.
Also read: Congress MLAs unhappy with own ministers in Jharkhand, party also ‘tussling’ with partner JMM
‘CID probe’
Senior investigating officers told ThePrint that their probe has thrown up “local hawala links”, and bogus companies have been used to cover up monetary transactions.
However, a senior officer said the cash recovered from Ansari’s car was transacted via proper banking channels from Guwahati.
The investigation, senior officers said, has revealed that the cash was allegedly exchanged in central Kolkata’s Bikaner Building, located 450 metres from the Kolkata Police headquarters.
In a raid conducted on 2 August, the CID sealed the office of one Mahendra Agarwal in Bikaner Building, after seizing Rs 3 lakh, silver coins and bank documents from the premises, sources told ThePrint.
CID sources said they also served a notice on Ashok Dalmia, a Kolkata-based businessman, Monday to appear for questioning in the ongoing investigation. They didn’t explain his exact involvement in the case.
Dalmia is the second businessman to have received such a notice — Guwahati businessman Ashok Kumar Dhanuka was Sunday served a notice under Section 41A of the CrPC, said CID sources. The section states that the “arrest of a person” is not necessary for them to appear for questioning.
Dhanuka, the sources added, is reported to be close to Sarma and suspected to have supplied the Rs 49 lakh cash to the MLAs.
On 3 August, a team from West Bengal CID, which reached Delhi to conduct a search on businessman Sidharth Majumdar’s residence in the case, was “restrained” by Delhi Police, who said that they were “taking legal advice” on the search warrant the CID officers were carrying.
Majumdar, who was once considered close to the Congress bigwigs in Delhi, is now reportedly very well connected to a top BJP leader in Assam, sources within the CID told ThePrint.
Calling it a “lost opportunity”, a member of the CID team said they “will take this to its logical end since the Delhi Police has said legal advice is being taken by them”.
They also claimed that Majumdar had a “role to play” in the cash transaction involving Ansari and the arrested MLAs.
CID sources claim their investigation has revealed a clear motive of horse-trading in Jharkhand.
CID officers investigating the case also found that the plan was afoot for at least a month before the arrests of the three MLAs, an officer told ThePrint. There are other MLAs connected to the operation, too, they added.
The case will be heard Wednesday at the Calcutta High Court.
On 4 August, the arrested Jharkhand MLAs had moved the high court to transfer the investigation from the West Bengal CID to the CBI or any other independent probe agency, but the court dismissed the plea and ordered the CID to continue with their investigation.
The MLAs have now moved the division bench seeking bail.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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