VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Dec 7: Jharkhand High Court advocate Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday is stated to have recorded his statement before the CBI in cash for PIL case originally lodged by the Kolkata police against him. A team of officials of the CBI from Delhi arrived at Ranchi and questioned Rajiv Kumar for more than five hours.
Later on, the Enforcement directorate also took up this case for investigation and filed a prosecution complaint against Rajiv Kumar as well as Kolkata-based businessman Amit Agrawal who is the complainant.
Notably, a couple of days back the court of Justice Sanjay Dwivedi had ordered a CBI inquiry into the cash for PIL case. The High court directed the CBI to conduct and conclude a preliminary inquiry in 15 days and report it to the court.
The Jharkhand High Court ordered the CBI to probe into the ‘larger conspiracy’ allegedly hatched by Amit Agrawal to tarnish the image of the Judiciary as well as the central investigating agencies, including ED.
The court order came in the wake of the hearing of Amit Agrawal’s petition that he filed to challenge the ED’s action to arrest him in the ‘cash for PIL’ scam in which the Kolkata police had arrested Rajiv Kumar with Rs 50 Lakh on July 31.
The ED arrested Amit Agrawal during the first week of October for hatching a conspiracy to trap Rajiv Kumar who was representing a petitioner in two PILs filed against several high-ups including Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. He pleaded innocence saying he had been made a scapegoat as so far no illegality has surfaced taking his money.
