Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday described as “fake” an FIR lodged by a ruling Congress MLA from Jharkhand featuring his name.

The FIR has been registered on basis of a police complaint filed by first-time Congress MLA from Bermo Assembly constituency Anup Singh, who is also known as Kumar Jaimangal, on Sunday.

The complaint was lodged on a day three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand were arrested in Howrah of Bengal following the recovery of the huge amount of cash — Rs 49 lakh — from their vehicle on Saturday.

The arrested MLAs are Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari.

In his complaint to the police, Singh has accused the arrested MLAs of luring him with Rs 10 crore each and a ministerial berth to help topple the JMM-Congress government in Jharkhand.

The trio, since suspended by the Congresss, allegedly wanted Singh to come to Calcutta from where they would have taken him to Guwahati to meet Assam chief minister Sarma.

According to the complaint, Ansari and Kachchap told him that Sarma was working on the government-toppling operation.

Ansari also said Sarma was “doing it with the blessings of” top BJP leaders sitting in Delhi, the complaint said, seeking action against the trio under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120 (B) of the IPC dealing criminal conspiracy.

Sarma took to Twitter on Tuesday to dismiss Singh’s complaint. “Fake FIR in #Jharkhand. The so-called FIR looks like @INCIndia asking Ottavio Quattrocchi to file a case against Bofors,” Sarma retweeted in response to his cabinet colleague Pijush Hazarika’s tweets dismissing the allegations and also seeking action against Singh.

Quattrocchi, who died in 2013, was an Italian businessman close to the Gandhi family and a key accused in the Bofors pay-off scandal involving the supply of Howitzer guns for the army by Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. Quattrocchi was discharged by a special CBI court in 2011 but the scandal led to the defeat of the Congress under Rajiv Gandhi in the 1989 general elections.

In a series of tweets, Assam minister Hazarika, a close aide of Sarma, shared some facts about the “baseless” and “fake” allegations by the Jharkhand Congress MLA that arrested MLAs “lured him” to meet Sarma.

“5 days before filing the fabricated FIR, Hon’ble CM Dr.@himantabiswasir took him to the Residence of the Hon’ble Union Coal Minister Shri @JoshiPralhadji at 9 am of 26th July, 2022 in order to help him in his trade union related matter,” Hazarika said.

The Assam minister further alleged Anup Singh “has been regularly meeting” Sarma.

“He should face the law for making a fraudulent allegation against Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam and against those tribal MLAs,” Hazarika tweeted with pictures of Singh with Union coal minister Pralhad Joshi in Sarma’s presence.

Singh told the media in Ranchi on Tuesday that Sarma “facilitated” the meeting with Joshi and that he had informed senior Congress leaders in Jharkhand and Delhi about the meeting.