VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Sept 16: Jharkhand High Court advocate Rajiv Kumar on Friday filed his bail petition before the special PMLA court of Prabhat Kumar Sharma in Ranchi in a cash for PIL case lodged by the Bengal police.
The court posted the matter for hearing on September 24 and meanwhile the court directed the ED to file the reply in the bail petition. Rajiv Kumar is currently lodged at Alipore jail in Kolkata. He was taken to Ranchi for his production before the PMLA court. It is likely that Rajiv Kumar will now be kept at Birsa Munda Central Jail in judicial custody instead of Alipore jail.
Senior Ranchi civil court advocate Shambhu Agrawal appeared on behalf of Rajiv Kumar. He stated that Rajiv Kumar was falsely implicated in an extortion case by Kolkata police because of the reason that he filed several PILs against many important persons.
He was arrested on July 31st on charge of extorting money from Kolkata-based businessman Amit Agrawal for not implicating his name in a shell company related PIL 4290/21. The said PIL was filed by Shiv Shankar Sharma and Rajiv Kumar was his advocate. Chief Minister Hemant Soren was the respondent in the PIL which is now pending before the Supreme Court.
The Kolkata police claimed that Rajiv Kumar was arrested along with Rs 50 Lakh cash he extorted from Amit Agrawal. The Kolkata police alleged that Rajiv Kumar along with his petitioner used to file PILs to extort money from different persons. While the Kolkata police are investigating this case, the ED also took up this case. However, in the Kolkata police case he got bail from a local Kolkata court. But he can’t come out till he gets bail from PMLA court as well.
