Congress suspends 3 Jharkhand MLAs detained with heap of cash; police file zero FIR

The Congress party has suspended three Jharkhand MLAs who were detained with a mountain of cash in West Bengal's Howrah district on Saturday. Addressing a press conference today, state Congress in-charge Avinash Pandey announced that party president Sonia Gandhi has ordered the immediate suspension of all three legislators - Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachhap, and Naman Wiksal - from the primary membership of the party.

This comes amid a zero FIR being filed by the police against the three MLAs. The FIR will be transferred to Howrah where the three got arrested after cash recovery from their possession.

Irfan Ansari, MLA from Jamtara; Rajesh Kachhap, MLA from Khijri; and Naman Bixal, MLA from Kolebira were apprehended on Sunday after a huge amount of cash was recovered from their cars by the Bengal police in Howrah.

"The three MLAs, who were held with a mountain of cash yesterday, have been suspended from the party with immediate effect," Pandey said. 

The Congress leader however said that there was a conspiracy to destabilise the JMM-led coalition government.

"Over the months, there have been several attempts to destabilise the state government by ways of horsetrading, bribing MLAs, or threatening with ED or CBI action. A similar case was witnessed in Howrah yesterday. However, I would like to inform you that our party chief has ordered the suspension of the three MLAs with immediate effect for misuse of powers. Tomorrow if any more members are found involved in the crime, they will face stringent action from the party "

Congress MLAs arrested; party alleges conspiracy

Earlier, Congress had blamed the BJP for the massive cash recovery and accused the party of attempting to topple the JMM-led government.

"It is in BJP's nature to try and destabilise any government which is not theirs. The same has been done against Chief Minister Hemant Soren's government. The only reason they were given money (by BJP) is to make the government fall," said Jharkhand Congress working President Bandhu Tirkey.

Following the arrest of the Congress MLAs, Jharkhand BJP said that since the formation of the JMM-led government, corruption has been rampant in the state. 

"Ever since their government came to power, corruption is on a rise. Earlier too, large amounts of cash were caught in Jharkhand at officers' homes. They use the public's hard-earned money for other purposes. Police caught them and it came to light," Aditya Sahu, Jharkhand BJP state general secretary said.