VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Aug 20: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) may have to wait for more time to secure police remand of the Jharkhand High Court advocate Rajiv Kumar as the Bengal police have filed a petition before the special court of Bankshall Street to take his voice sample on August 24 to investigate the extortion case against him.
It may trigger further tussle between the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Bengal police as it may prevent the ED from getting Rajiv Kumar on police remand for questioning. “The Kolkata police have filed a petition before the special court and the order is awaited,” said a Kolkata-based lawyer.
The special PMLA court in Ranchi granted permission to the ED to question him in police remand for eight days starting from August 20. A team of the ED officials from the Ranchi zonal office went to Kolkata to bring Rajiv Kumar to Ranchi to question him as per the court order.
Rajiv Kumar is currently lodged at Alipur Jail in Bengal after the Kolkata police arrested him on July 31 for allegedly extorting money from Kolkata-based businessman Amit Agrawal. The Kolkata police claimed that Rajiv Kumar was arrested along with Rs 50 lakh cash which he had allegedly extorted from Amit Agrawal for giving relief in a PIL 4290/21. This PIL was filed by Shiv Shankar Sharma who alleged Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren laundered unaccounted money through various shell companies. Certain allegations were made against Amit Agrawal, who, however, is not the respondent. Rajiv Kumar is the advocate of the petitioner.
The ED lodged an ECIR in this matter and started an investigation. The matter reached a flashpoint after Bengal police issued a notice to the former deputy director of the Ranchi zone of the ED Subodh Kumar.
In the light of the ECIR, the special PMLA court of Prabhat Kumar Sharma of Ranchi civil court granted the ED police custody of Rajiv Kumar effective from August 20. Earlier, the ED court had issued his production order and directed his physical appearance before the court on August 18. The court also directed Birsa Munda Central Jail authority to ensure that Rajiv Kumar is produced as per the order. The jail officer made a submission before Alipur Jail and the special court in Kolkata in this regard. But the request was turned down as Birsa jail authorities could not produce the copy of the production order.
