Ashok Dhanuka, Guwahati-based businessman, who is suspected of supplying cash to three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand, is a long-time partner of Assam chief minister Himantan Biswa Sarma’s family, according to media reports. Dhanuka allegedly supplied Rs 48 lakh cash to the three MLAs who had gone to Guwahati to meet Sarma when the police seized the money from their vehicle in Howrah district in West Bengal on July 31.
Media reports have pointed to Dhanuka’s association with Sarma, who is also the Assam home minister, and how a team of investigators from Kolkata couldn’t question the businessman who did not open the gate of his house in Guwahati guarded by the Assam police.
The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal had issued a notice to Dhanuka under Section 41A of Code of Criminal Procedure to gather details in the cash seizure case.
A Hindustan Times report quoting a CID officer said, “A team went to the residence of Ashok Dhanuka in Guwahati, but people inside the house refused to open the door. The house was guarded by Assam police personnel armed with automatic rifles.”
A four-member team of West Bengal Police had reached Guwahati to interrogate the three Congress MLAs about the cash. According to a report, the MLAs – Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari – said the money recovered from them was meant to buy saris for a tribal festival.
The former MLAs had been remanded to judicial custody till August 10 while the state police have transferred the case to the CID.
Meanwhile, another Congress MLA from Jharkhand, Kumar Jaimangal, filed an FIR and claimed that the two of the suspended MLAs got in touch with him and asked him to meet Sarma to overthrow Hemant Soren-led coalition government.
About Ashok Dhanuka
Dhanuka is a full-time director of a company, Vasistha Realtors, in which CM Sarma’s son, Nandil Biswa, has majority shares.
According to a report in The Wire, Dhanuka became the director of the firm the day Sarma’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan, resigned from the position in June 2009.
Dhanukas own two companies—GRD Pharmaceutical and Meditime Healthcare, which have the same official address as Vasistha Realtors.
According to an RTI report, accessed by The Wire, when Sarma was the health minister, the ministry had ordered procuring sanitisers and PPE kits from GRD Pharmaceuticals and Meditime Healthcare – owned by Dhanuka — at high prices.
The Wire investigation in June revealed that Dhanuka’s Padamavati Traders and Sarma’s Vasistha Realtors have at least six common investors from Kolkata’s Burra Bazar area.
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