Jharkhand MLAs offered up to Rs 30 crore, ministerial berths to topple Hemant Soren govt: JMM

RANCHI: Though, police is yet to speak on the alleged plot to topple the JMM-led alliance government in Jharkhand, the statements recorded by the three arrested persons in the case confessed that a huge amount of money was offered to all the MLAs, along with the post of deputy Chief Minister (CM) and ministerial berths for defecting. 

Congress MLA Naman Bixal Kongari also claimed that he was offered a huge amount of money and ministerial berth for toppling the government, but he refused it and informed senior party leaders in this regard.

Notably, three persons -- Abhishek Kumar Dubey, Amit Singh, and Niwaran Prasad -- were arrested, allegedly for hatching conspiracy to destabilize the JMM-led alliance government in Jharkhand. Booked under sections 419, 420, 124-A, 120 B, and 34 of IPC along with some section 171-B of PR Act and section 8/9 of PC Act.

Meanwhile, the JMM tweeted that the MLAs were offered Rs 25-30 crore along with the posts of deputy CM and ministerial berth for toppling the government. “All of them were promised the post of Deputy CM or ministerial berth…. All kinds of tricks to topple an elected government in Jharkhand. Many more characters and layers of this story are yet to be revealed,” claimed JMM through its official Twitter handle.

The three arrested persons in their statement disclosed that the deal was being fixed with 11 MLAs who were promised Rs 1 crore in advance. They also admitted that Maharashtra BJP leaders --Chandrashekhar Rao Bavankule, who is the party's Jharkhand state general secretary and Charan Singh -- involved in the plot along with businessman Jaikumar Belkhede alias Balkund.

“Since advance money of Rs 1 crore was not given to the three MLAs, they got annoyed and returned to Ranchi on the very next evening,” said one of the accused Abhishek Dubey in his statement.

They also claimed that Congress MLAs Irfan Ansari from Jamtara and Umashankar Akela from Barhi, along with Independent MLA Amit Kumar Yadav, had also gone to Delhi with them on July 15 where they met some of the senior BJP leaders. Flight tickets, rooms in five-star hotels, and all other arrangements in Delhi were made by Belkhede, they said.

“All the meetings with senior BJP leaders in Delhi were fixed by the Maharashtra BJP leaders,” said Dubey.

Incidentally, the manager of Hotel Le Lac, where the alleged conspiracy was being hatched, is said to have denied any police raid in his hotel.