VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Oct 14: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday allowed Bengal police to continue investigation against three Jharkhand Congress MLAs in a cash seizure case but the court also restrained the police from filing the chargesheet.
The court of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi passed this order while hearing quashing petitions of these MLAs. On Thursday the matter was listed for hearing and the court made an oral observation suggesting an interim relief in terms of a stay on further investigation till the time the matter is decided.
“That was not a written order. The court required clarifications on some law points hence it continued hearing today also. During the hearing today the Union of India, Government of West Bengal and Government of Jharkhand were represented by their law officers. The notice has been issued to the Congress MLA Jai Mangal Singh who had lodged a zero FIR,” said senior advocate Indrajit Sinha
The next hearing of this case is set to take place on December 1. The order was passed by the court of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi over a petition filed by MLAs Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kacchap, and Naman Bixel Kongari.
Bengal police arrested them on July 30 along with cash to the tune of Rs 50 Lakh. On the next day, another Congress MLA Jai Mangal Singh alias Anoop Singh lodged a zero FIR. He alleged that these MLAs were part of a larger conspiracy to topple the Hemant Soren-led JMM-Congress-RJD government on the instruction of the BJP. He named BJP’s Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma among the persons who are trying to bribe MLAs to topple the government.
They contended that the cash seizure had no connection with the zero FIR. If a conspiracy to topple the government was hatched and executed in Ranchi then why did Ranchi police take a zero FIR and send it to Bengal police? Ranchi police should have lodged a regular FIR here only and started the investigation.
