The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice on a petition filed by Assam businessman Ashok Kumar Dhanuka regarding arrest of three MLAs of Jharkhand Congress, along with around Rs 48 lakh, in Howrah district of West Bengal.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, while issuing notice, directed that no coercive action be taken against Dhanuka for the next six weeks.
Appearing for Dhanuka, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi said, “It is a crossfire between the MLAs of Jharkhand and West Bengal. It’s a political game between parties and I, as a businessman, am getting caught in the cross fire. Three MLAs have been arrested on complaint of another MLA of their party. I’m a senior citizen and I’m getting harassed. There is no allegation against me. FIR was lodged in Ranchi over allegations that bribe was paid to the MLAs to topple the Jharkhand government.”
The businessman claimed that he was being “falsely implicated” in the case relating to bribery of Jharkhand MLAs to topple the state government.
Earlier, the CID team of West Bengal Police had issued notice to Dhanuka under Section 41A of CrPC for collecting evidence of the cash scandal, reported on August 7. Besides, Dhanuka was asked to appear in Bhawani Bhawan at 10 am on August 23.
Sources claimed that the CID team in Guwahati had gone to his house to serve the notice, however, his house was guarded by Assam Police.