MLA Pijush Hazarika on Tuesday said that Congress MLA Kumar Jaimangal had made baseless allegations about Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma planning to overthrow the Jharkhand government.
“Jharkhand Congress MLA Kumar Jaimangal made a fake allegation that the three arrested MLAs had lured him to meet CM Himanta Biswa sir,” Hazarika wrote on Twitter.
A controversy erupted on Sunday after five persons, including three Jharkhand Congress MLAs, were arrested in Howrah after the police found a huge amount of cash in their vehicle.
The Congress party alleged that the money was part of a conspiracy by the BJP to topple its coalition government in Jharkhand.
A coalition of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal is in power in the state, while the BJP is in the opposition.
Subsequently, Congress MLAs Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari were suspended from the party.
The Jharkhand Police has registered a case of corruption after Jaimangal alleged that the three Congress legislators offered him money to help topple the state government.
According to Jaimangal, the MLAs told him that Sarma would give him a ministerial berth in the new government as well as money if he were to assist in overthrowing the current government.
Hazarika on Tuesday claimed that Sarma met Jaimangal on July 26 and took him to Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi’s home to help him in a trade union-related matter.
“Kumar Jaimangal has been regularly meeting Himanta Biswa Sarma sir,” Hazarika added. “He should face the law for making a fraudulent allegation against the Chief Minister of Assam and against those tribal MLAs.”
On Tuesday, Sarma reposted Haraika’s tweets and said that the first information report registered in Jharkhand is “fake”.
“The so-called FIR looks like the Congress asking Ottavio Quattrocchi to file a case against Bofors,” the Assam chief minister wrote.
Sarma was referring to the Bofors scam which dates back to the 1980s and 1990s when the Congress was in power with Rajiv Gandhi as the prime minister. In April 1987, Swedish Radio had claimed that the arms manufacturer Bofors paid bribes to senior Indian politicians and Army personnel to secure a defence deal worth Rs 9,568 crore approximately. Gandhi was also implicated in the case. Italian entrepreneur Quattrocchi was said to be a conduit for the bribes.
Meanwhile, Jaimangal alleged on Tuesday that Hazarika deleted his tweets, ANI reported. It was not clear which social media post Jaimangal was referring to.
“I was at Pralhad Joshi’s Delhi home around July 25-26,” he said. “Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma took me there. We discussed issues related to coal. The Jharkhand CM knew about the visit.”
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