V NARADA
Ranchi, Feb 6: Jharkhand Congress MLA and accused of the ‘cash for government’ case Irfan Ansari has claimed before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that he was never a part of any horse trading to topple the Hemant Soren government.
Irfan Ansari today appeared before the ED for his questioning in the ‘cash for government’ case in which he and two other Congress MLAs were arrested by the Bengal Police along with Rs. 48 Lakh cash on July 30. The ED is also investigating this case.
Irfan Ansari claimed that he along with MLAs namely Naman Bixal Kongari and Rajesh Kacchap were traveling to Bengal to purchase Saris for distribution among their voters.
When the ED asked him to explain the source of such a huge cash amount, he produced some documents and vouchers to explain the source of the money. He said that all three MLAs kept the cash together and they went to Bengal to purchase Sari in bulk at a cheaper price.
He claimed that he was framed by his rivals within and outside of his party to defame him. He denied that he offered any bribe to his party colleague Jaimangal Singh who lodged a zero FIR in this matter causing their post detention arrest.
The ED is investigating this case which was originally lodged by the Bengal police on the basis of a zero FIR lodged by Jharkhand Congress MLA Jaimangal Singh alias Anoop Singh. Irfan Ansari and two other party MLAs namely Rajesh Kacchap and Naman Bixel Kongari were arrested at Howrah on July 30 along with cash to the tune of Rs. 48 Lakh. They were allegedly returning after receiving cash from the BJP as a part of a conspiracy to topple the Hemant Soren government.
On December 24 last year, the federal agency had recorded a statement of Jaimangal Singh alias. These three MLAs on July 30 were intercepted and then arrested by the Bengal police along with Rs 48 cash. It was alleged that these MLAs were returning after receiving cash from the BJP and they were part of the BJP’s game plan to topple the Hemant Soren-led JMM-Congress-RJD government.
Jaimangal Singh intervened in this matter a day after the arrest of his colleagues. He filed a zero FIR at the Argora police station in Ranchi and claimed that he was offered Rs 10 Crore by these MLAs to join BJP’s game plan. He also claimed that BJP’s Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma was handling the entire operation.
