Reacting to the arrest of the West Bengal BJP leader Manish Sharma, on the charges of money laundering, Union minister of state for heavy industries BJP MP Babul Supriyo said, “I campaigned for him being MP, but if he does something wrong then must be punished.” Supriyo along with Central leader Shahnawaz Hussain had campaigned for Sharma during the Assembly elections in 2016.

On Tuesday, Sharma, who contested the assembly elections from Raniganj in 2016, was arrested by the Special Task Force on the charges of money laundering. In a raid, the STF recovered Rs 33 lakh in new Rs 2,000 notes. They have also taken into custody various suspected members of the coal mafia.

Talking to a new agency Supriyo also pointed out that one of those arrested Krishnakant went in 2014 to Singapore as part of Mamata Didi’s delegation.

Supriyo also took to the social networking site Twitter and said, “Sad that people get ‘derailed’ from life & cause embarrassment 2 people who trusted them. Rue the MANY hours I wasted campaigning for him!”

Sharma unsuccessfully contested the Assembly elections from Raniganj where he lost by 18 per cent. He finished third, followed by CPM, who won the election.

In a similar incident, a BJP youth leader from Salem, who was actively campaigning in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation drive, was arrested with huge bundles of currency notes worth Rs 20.55 lakh. According to the police, there were 926 notes of Rs 2,000 denomination in the seized cash, reported the Indian Express.