BJP Man, 6 Others Arrested In Bengal With Rs. 33 Lakh In New Rs. 2,000 Notes

Manish Sharma and six others were arrested, they had Rs. 33 lakh in new Rs. 2000 notes.

KOLKATA: A BJP leader in Bengal who was the party's candidate in the Assembly polls was arrested with six others in Kolkata with bundles of cash totalling Rs. 33 lakh. Police say most of the notes were brand new 2000 rupee notes. Manish Sharma, the BJP candidate from Raniganj Assembly seat in the polls of April-May, was arrested with Rs. 10 lakh in his personal possession. Another Rs. 23 lakh was seized from six others arrested along with him. Sources say the group had possibly converted black money into white in Kolkata. The seven persons were arrested Monday night by a police team which was tipped off that the group was travelling in an Innova car from the Asansol-Durgapur to Kolkata with lots of cash and arms. Raju Jha, one of the people in the group, is suspected to be part of the coal mafia in the Asansol area. The group managed to slip past the police at the Dankuni toll plaza 30 km from Kolkata, say sources, but police traced their movement through cellphones and arrested them last night from a flat near the Kolkata airport. The arrest of Manish Sharma has embarrassed the BJP in Bengal. In photos and videos available, Manish Sharma has been seen with Babul Supriyo, BJP lawmaker from the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency which includes the Raniganj Assembly seat from where Sharma contested. Several other BJP leaders like Piyush Goyal, Raghavendra Rathode and Shahnawaz Hussain are seen with Sharma. "Yes, we gave him a ticket but after that when he tried to meet me, I avoided. I don't know anything about his coal mafia associations," Babul Supriyo has reportedly said after Sharma's arrest. Local BJP leaders are also trying to distance themselves from him. But sources in the party say Sharma was a Babul Supriyo lieutenant who he backed despite the party's reservations about him. The arrested men were not just carrying cash, they were also carrying several improvised semi-automatics guns and a Carl Walther pistol and ammunition. In police records, Manish Sharma, whose visiting card says "President, BJP Raniganj Mandal", is listed as Manish Joshi whose father resides in Pune. But according to BJP sources and the police, they are one and the same person. In Manish Sharma's voter card, his residential address is Hyderabad. At Raniganj, local BJP leaders say Manish Sharma had nothing to do with the party since June 30. But the Trinamool Congress is likely to raise the issue in Parliament tomorrow. On Monday, Trinamool chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of buying land just ahead of demonetisation. Earlier, there were reports that the Bengal unit of the BJP had deposited Rs. 3 crore in its official bank account just before Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes were scrapped.