Bengal BJP leader, 6 others held with `31 lakhs in `2,000 notes
KOLKATA: A BJP leader was caught with unaccounted cash of `33 lakh, illicit arms and ammunition, barely a week after police arrested a BJP youth wing leader, JVR Arun, in Tamil Nadu and seized `33 lakh in cash, including wads of new `2,000 notes.
BJP leader Manish Sharma contested the last assembly election from Raniganj on a BJP ticket. Six others, including Rajesh Jha, alias Raju and five other gang members were arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata police on Monday evening from an apartment in Baguiati on the outskirts of Kolkata.
They were produced before a court on Tuesday and remanded to police custody.
“Out of `33 lakh, `31 lakh was in new currency of `2,000. Seven firearmswerealsoseizedfromtheir possession,” said an STF sleuth.
The BJP sought to control the damage following the latest incident. “Sharma was suspended from the party in June because of his illegal activities,” claimed Sayantan Bose, state BJP secretary.
The police said that they were looking for Rajesh Jha and his two aides, Partha Chatterjee and Lokesh Singh. A murder case is pending against Chatterjee and Singh. The sleuths also came to know that Jha had purchased a flat in Baguiati, posing as an agro-product businessman.
The police were looking for Jha, who was active in the coal mafia in Raniganj and Assansol for years and had earned a lot of black money.
Sharma’s arrest is another embarrassment for the BJP after one of its members, Dilip Ghosh, who is also a doctor, was nabbed in the baby trafficking case by CID. The party has suspended Ghosh.