Jharkhand saga: West Bengal cops looking for airport CCTV detained by Assam Police

A four-member team of Crime Investigation Department (CID) officers from West Bengal finds itself detained in Guwahati today (August 3), moments after giving requisition to collect copies of CCTV footage from an airport in the city. This comes days after Jharkhand MLA Kumar Jaimangal named Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in an FIR alleging a ‘coup attempt’ by the BJP to topple the JMM-Congress coalition government.

According to top official sources, Assam police personnel are checking their antecedents. The team of West Bengal CID has not been able to submit a copy of an FIR, a source from the Assam Police told India Today NE. They sought footage from the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport (LGBI), where they are reportedly being detained.

Kumar Jaimangal, Congress MLA from Bermo, had recently lodged an FIR at the Argora police station after three colleagues – Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap, and Naman Bixal – got arrested with Rs 4.9 million stacked in their vehicle in Howrah, Kolkata’s twin city. He had named Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma – considered the architect behind the BJP’s surge in Northeast India – in his complaint.

Jaimangal alleged that Kachchap and Ansari had urged him to meet Biswa Sarma in Guwahati with the promise of a "definite ministerial berth" and Rs 10 crore for bringing down the JMM-Congress government in the tribal-majority state. 

Adding that he did not want to be a part of this "unconstitutional, illegal, and downright criminal activity", the MLA urged the police to take action against his colleagues. In his complaint, the legislator urged the Jharkhand police to invoke Section 7(C) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 120B IPC.

Biswa Sarma, however, flatly denied the allegations, claiming he is in touch with many Congressmen, having been a part of the party once. 

Hardening his stance since, Sarma has said Jaimangal should “face the law for making a fraudulent allegation.”

Now, it has also come to light that Jaimangal met Biswa Sarma as recently as July 2022. This was also tweeted out by Assam MLA and Minister Pijush Hazarika, a close confidante of the Chief Minister. The Jharkhand legislator, however, says he only met Biswa Sarma along with Union Minister Pralhad Joshi to discuss ‘trade-related matters.’

Meanwhile, the three MLAs and two aides have been arrested and remanded in the custody of the West Bengal police’s CID. Following this, Avinash Pandey, the grand old party’s Jharkhand in-charge, had announced the immediate expulsion of the MLAs ‘who were trying to mislead others in the party.’

The trio said that they had gone to Kolkata to purchase sarees. However, West Bengal officials have claimed that they also made a brief visit to Guwahati. Hence, they are trying to ascertain the MLAs’ whereabouts in the days leading up to their arrests.

Interestingly, Jaimangal had lodged a similar FIR a year ago at the Kotwali police station about attempts being made to “destabilize the coalition government in Jharkhand”. Three persons, including a fruit seller with alleged ties to the BJP, were arrested.

This time, the MLA’s complaint has stirred up a major political row, with the Congress condemning the BJP’s ‘’Operation Lotus’, close on the heels of destabilizing and overthrowing the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena coalition government in Maharashtra. 

The saffron party managed this after securing the loyalty of a faction of Sena MLAs led by a disgruntled Eknath Shinde, who has now been made Chief Minister.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was also a part of the controversy then, having hosted rebel Shiv Sena MLAs in a luxury hotel in Guwahati while negotiations were supposedly going on.