BJP legislature party leader Babulal Marandi accused chief minister Hemant Soren of arresting three persons on false charges on Sunday and asked for a special investigation team under a sitting high court judge to look into allegations that they were involved in a conspiracy to topple the JMM-led state government at the behest of the BJP.

Marandi also accused Jharkhand police of acting as an "agent of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha" and advised them to do their job judiciously.

Marandi's demand comes a day after police announced the arrest of three persons with cash and travel documents of a few MLAs from a city hotel. Police said the three, identified as Abhishek Singh, Amit Singh and Nivaran Prasad Mahto, were arrested on Friday night following a complaint by Congress’s Bermo MLA Kumar Jaimangal, alleging hawala transactions and a political conspiracy to lure MLAs.

While Nivaran is a fruit seller by profession, Amit is a contractual worker in BCCL and Abhishek runs a small-time shop.

The Congress has backed ally JMM's accusations and also accused the BJP of orchestrating attempts to destabilize the government through horse trading.

Reacting to the allegations of the ruling parties, Marandi told reporters in the afternoon on Sunday, "Let there be a judicial inquiry by a high court sitting judge and an SIT be formed to probe the whole matter. We won’t demand CBI probe because JMM-Congress will then say that the agency is under the Central government. Have your own judicial probe and let the truth come out.”

Marandi also the questioned police’s silence so far. “It is very surprising that immediately after the arrest, JMM holds a press conference but not police. If Ranchi police got such a major breakthrough to prevent the state government from being destabilized, shouldn’t it be their responsibility to brief the details? Three persons were booked for treason and sedition and no SP or DGP holds a press conference to highlight their achievement. Why have they gone numb?” remarked Marandi, adding that the whole affair seemed stage-managed.

“Last night (Sunday) police came up with an insignificant press release announcing the arrest of three persons from a hotel in Ranchi. However, their family members have claimed that two were picked from Bokaro from their homes two days ago. So how did they land in the hotel and begin plotting after booking a room?,” he asked, demanding the release of all the three "innocent" persons.