Congress suspends 3 Jharkhand MLAs caught in SUV with cash worth over 48 lakh from West Bengal's Howrah

New Delhi: Three Congress MLAs of Jharkhand - Irfan Ansari from Jamtara, Rajesh Kachhap from Khijri and Naman Bixal from Kolebira - who were arrested from West Bengal's Howrah district on Saturday evening with cash worth more than 48 lakh were suspended by the party today.

"Three MLAs, who were held with a mountain of cash yesterday, have been suspended from the party with immediate effect," Avinash Pande, General Secretary and In-charge, Jharkhand Congress said on Sunday.

The MLAs were stopped in Howrah district of West Bengal after a huge amount of cash was recovered from their SUV. Their vehicle was intercepted on National Highway-16 at Ranihati in Panchla police station area.

News agency PTI quoted Swati Bhangalia, the superintendent of police of Howrah (Rural) as saying that they We had specific input of a huge amount of money being transported in a black car.

She added that the cops started checking vehicles, and intercepted the SUV in which three Jharkhand MLAs were travelling. They recovered a huge amount of cash from the vehicle.

The senior police officer further informed that cash counting machines were brought to ascertain the total amount.

Apart from the MLAs, there were two other people in the SUV, which had a board mentioning "MLA Jamtara Jharkhand" along with the Congress's election symbol, police said.

Earlier, the Jharkhand Congress claimed the cash recovered from party MLAs was part of a conspiracy by the BJP to topple the Hemant Soren government in the state, of which it is a part along with Lalu Prasad's RJD.

Don't Miss: 'Baseless allegations': BJP slams Congress' 'Operation Lotus in Jharkhand' charge

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Saturday tweeted, "The BJP's 'Operation Lotus' in Jharkhand stands exposed tonight in Howrah. The game plan of 'Hum Do' in Delhi is to do in Jharkhand what they did in Maharashtra by installing E-D duo."

Earlier today, BJP lashed out at the Congress for accusing it of trying to topple the government in Jharkhand. Union Minister Arjun Munda alleged Congress has a habit of "levelling baseless allegations" against others to cover their own mistakes.

"Congress party has a habit of levelling baseless allegations against others to sweep their own mistakes under the carpet. They (Congress MLAs) must explain where all the cash recovered from the car came from," he said.

With inputs from agencies

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