VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Sept 12: Jharkhand High court advocate Rajiv Kumar arrested in an extortion case by the Kolkata police got bail from a local civil court. The judge of 4th Special Court at Bankshall in Kolkata granted him bail. He is currently lodged at Alipore jail after his arrest on July 31.
His advocate Subhadeep Adhikari confirmed the court order. Earlier, the court had rejected his bail petition on the ground that he is an influential person and can influence the probe.
But Rajiv Kumar is unlikely to come out of jail as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) took up this case for investigation and made him an accused. Now onward he will be treated under custody of the ED till the time he secures bail from the special PMLA court in Ranchi. There is no clarity whether he will be brought to Ranchi.
He was arrested 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.
In this case, the Kolkata police summoned the former deputy director of ED of Ranchi zone on the basis of some WhatsApp conversation with Rajiv Kumar.
