RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, May 2: The Jharkhand High Court today directed petitioner, Umesh Kumar to file a supplementary affidavit to let the court know on the record how he and his advocate’s family members were threatened.
The direction came after the petitioner informed the court that a ruling party legislator, Anup Kumar Singh, threatened him for filing a PIL demanding a probe into malpractices adopted for the finalisation of wholesale liquor tender for supply of liquor in different districts and the police detained the brother of his advocate for 43 hours at a police station.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra gave the direction giving a deadline of two weeks to file an affidavit explaining how the state police and legislator threatened him and his advocate’s family members.
Senior advocate of Supreme Court Kapil Sibal represented the Jharkhand state in the case heard in hybrid mode while Rajeev Kumar assisted by advocate Vikalp Gupta appeared on behalf of petitioner Kumar.
The PIL suggests that an amount in crores was transferred from Kolkata in three different company accounts in three districts and from the three accounts money was transferred for payment of Rs 25 lakh as a non-refundable amount in each district to participate in the tendering process.
The company accounts, the PIL suggests, earlier had deposits ranging between Rs 2000 to Rs 4000. The PIL demands a probe into the matter to ensure who transferred the amount from Kolkata and who are the operators of the three accounts in which the amount was transferred.
