Based on an FIR lodged by Congress MLA Anup Singh who had alleged horse-trading of his party’s MLAs, Enforcement Directorate has lodged an FIR of money laundering connected with his allegations.

In his FIR filed at Argora police station in Ranchi on July 30, 2022, Congress MLA Anup Singh had alleged that he was contacted by Congress MLAs who had asked him to join them to topple the Hemant Soren government. Toward that end, he had claimed to have been offered ‘crores of rupees.”

Three Congress MLAs -Irphan Ansari, Naman Viksal Kongadi and Rajesh Kacchap - were made accused. They were arrested in West Bengal by Kolkata police along NH-16 with a cash sum of Rs 45 lakh.

The Hemant Soren government had handed over the case to  Jharkhand CID and The Indian Express had described the case as “ Operation Lotus”, indicating the money was offered by the BJP leaders.

The Anup Singh’s FIR in which the complainant had claimed that he had received a phone call from his party’s Irfan Ansari, Naman Viksal Kongadi and Rajesh Kacchap that they were being offered money by the BJP to topple the Soren government,
was transferred by the Jharkhand police to the Kolkata police. 

Subsequently, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and a picture of these MLAs with him was circulated on social media. The Congress MLA Singh had also alleged that Assam CM Sarma was “doing this” as per the directive of some top BJP leaders. 

“ I don’t want to get involved in this unconstitutional work” to topple the Hemant Soren government, Singh had claimed before the media.

All these alleged facts and figures appear in the text of the FIR lodged by the ED in the money laundering case.

Notably, on the basis of Anup Singh’s FIR the Congress had suspended its three MLAs-Irfhsn Ansari, Naman Viksal Kongadi and Rajesh Kaccha.