West Bengal: Court sends 3 Congress MLAs found with cash stash to 10-day police remand

The Howrah district court has ordered 10-day police remand for the 3 Congress MLAs from Jharkhand, who were nabbed with a huge amount of cash by Howrah police in West Bengal on the night of July 30, taking action based on specific inputs. Earlier the MLAs were taken to court after their medical examination was conducted. 

Congress suspended the three MLAs - Irfan Ansari (Jamtara), Naman Bixel Kongari (Kolebira) and Rajesh Kachchap (Khijri) - on July 31. However, the party claimed there were attempts to destabilise Jharkhand's JMM-led coalition government. It's important to note Jharkhand has a JMM-Congress-RJD government, wherein JMM has 30 MLAs, Congress has 18, RJD - 1 and BJP has 26 MLAs, in the 81-seat Assembly. 

Zero FIR filed against 3 MLAs

The Howrah police registered a Zero FIR as the three MLAs are from Jharkhand. Zero FIR is filed irrespective of the jurisdiction where the crime is committed, in order to quickly solve the case, independent of jurisdictional complications. The FIR will subsequently be transferred to Howrah, where the three MLAs were arrested with the cash.  

Congress suspends 3 Jharkhand MLAs; accuses BJP of trying to destabilise govt  

The Congress party suspended the three MLAs from Jharkhand, who were nabbed by the Howrah police on the night of July 30, in possession of a mountain of cash in their car. The state Congress in-charge Avinash Pandey in a press conference on July 31 announced that the party's interim president Sonia Gandhi has ordered that the three MLAs be suspended with immediate effect. However, the Congress has also accused the BJP of destabilising the JMM-led government in Jharkhand.

"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," Panedy said.

(Image: ANI)