Guwahati: Three Jharkhand Congress legislators’ funds were confiscated by West Bengal police, but they were unable to contact the businessman they were hoping to meet and question. The occupants of the businessman’s residence, which was being protected by armed Assam Police officers, refused to open the door.
“A crew visited Ashok Dhanuka’s home in Guwahati, but the occupants were unwilling to open the door. The house was guarded by Assam police personnel armed with automatic rifles,” a criminal investigation department officer said as reported by Hindustan Times.
On condition of anonymity, the official added, “Before departing, the team put a notice on the door requesting Dhanuka to report to the CID headquarters in Kolkata at 10 am on Monday.”
Inquiries about the situation were not answered by Assam police officials.
According to the HT report, the investigation has been difficult for the CID three times since the arrests of Kolebira MLA Naman Bixal, Khijri MLA Rajesh Kachhap, and Jamtara lawmaker Irfan Ansari in West Bengal’s Howrah district. On July 30, they were arrested and interrogated all night before being taken into custody.
The report added that the MLAs’ car, driven by Ansari, contained a total of 49 lakh rupees in cash. Despite the MPs’ claims that they travelled from Jharkhand with the funds to purchase sarees in Kolkata’s wholesale market for distribution at a tribal festival, CID investigators said they discovered contradictions in their claims.
The trio travelled to Guwahati on July 29 and returned to Kolkata on July 30, when the money was allegedly provided to them in a hotel, according to the CID investigation.
On August 3, however, when two CID teams were purportedly stopped by Delhi and Assam Police, things took a new turn.
The CID team in Delhi entered the Chanakyapuri home of businessman Sidharth Majumder at Moti Bagh South with a search order that had been granted by the chief judicial magistrate of the Howrah district. The CID believes Majumdar scheduled meetings between “a significant person in Assam,” Ansari, Kachhap, and Bixal.
According to Arijit Bhattacharya, additional officer-in-charge, CID, who was in charge of the team in Delhi, local police used technical justifications to prevent him from searching Majumder’s home.
A second CID team was allegedly held by Assam police shortly after it arrived at Guwahati airport in a related event. The crew was there to gather security camera video of the three MLAs entering the state capital on July 29 and leaving on July 30, which was captured on July 30. Assam government vehicles are said to have been rushed to the airport.
According to CID officers, Ansari stated during questioning that he travelled to Guwahati to speak with a school administration about admitting his son, but the other legislators were unable to offer a believable explanation.
The MLAs, who were suspended by the Congress on July 31 and charged with accepting funds from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to aid in the overthrow of the coalition government led by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, had earlier requested a halt to the CID investigation and transfer of the case to the CBI or another central investigation agency.
On August 4, the Calcutta High Court rejected both petitions, stating that the accused cannot select the investigative authorities. The cash was taken from the vehicle the MLAs were travelling in West Bengal, and the court further noted that the CID has complete jurisdiction to undertake the investigation.
Mahendra Agarwal, a stockbroker located in Kolkata, has been questioned by the CID. He is accused of giving the money to a courier sent by the MLAs on July 30 while they were seated in a restaurant on Sudder Street in Kolkata. They used a hotel room on the same campus for a short time, but their names were not recorded in the hotel’s register.
Agarwal stated during questioning that he had received a bag from someone who said it was for the MLAs. Additionally, he asserted that he had no idea what was in the bag.
He claimed that the bag was kept in his office in the Bikaner Building at Lalbazar in the heart of Kolkata. He claimed to have gotten a call from Guwahati, according to a CID officer who declined to give his name.