CID raids office of Kolkata bizman who 'delivered' cash to J'khand Cong MLAs

Kolkata: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday found cash worth about Rs 3.31 lakh from an office of a share trading company in connection with the case of money recovery from three Jharkhand Congress MLAs.

Moreover, about 250 silver coins and several documents were found from the said office. The whole process of the raid conducted was video recorded.

The cash recovered from the three arrested Jharkhand Congress MLAs was delivered to them by a Kolkata-based businessman through hawala, a senior CID officer said on Tuesday.

The CID raided the office of a businessman, identified as Mahendra Agarwal, just opposite the Kolkata Police's headquarters in Lalbazar and recovered the cash and other documents.

"The office was closed and the mobile phone of the owner was switched off. In order to find out more about his activities, we conducted the raid," the official added.

Aggarwal went missing after the arrest of the three MLAs at Howrah's Panchla with over Rs 49 lakh in cash over the last weekend, the officer said.

The three MLAs — Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari — have already been suspended by Congress. "All three MLAs, along with a mediator, had gone to Guwahati where a deal was struck with someone influential. The three MLAs then flew back to Kolkata and put up at a Sudder Street hotel," sources said.

Efforts are on to trace the Youth Congress leader, an officer said, adding that they have already secured the CCTV footage of the hotel as proof of the activities that happened there.