The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday secured four days further remand of Jharkhand High Court lawyer Rajeev Kumar, arrested in Kolkata on charges of taking Rs 50 lakh.
On Friday, Rajeev Kumar was produced at ED court in Ranchi. As Rajeev Kumar's remand period was ending on Saturday, the ED made a plea for granting four days further remand of lawyer. The ED court forwarded Rajiv Kumar on remand till August 31. Earlier on August 18, Rajiv's production was done through video conferencing. At that time, the ED court had handed over 8 days remand to Rajiv Kumar to the ED team.
On July 31, the Kolkata Police had arrested Jharkhand High Court advocate Rajiv Kumar from a mall in Kolkata with Rs 50 lakh. On August 11, in the case, the ED had registered a case against Rajeev on charges of money laundering. Shiv Shankar Sharma was also made an accused in this. The ED has also booked money laundering along with Section 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act (accepting any undue advantage from any other person to himself or any other person by using his personal influence), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 384 (coercion) of the IPC.
However, ED registers most of the cases only under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. But along with money laundering in the case of Rajeev Kumar, a case has been registered under PC Act and IPC Act.
Rajeev Kumar was arrested by the Kolkata police from a parking lot of the state’s capital city with Rs 50 lakh in his possession. The police have alleged that Kumar had filed a PIL (public interest litigation) against a Kolkata-based businessman and later demanded Rs 10 crore to withdraw the petition. He was allegedly caught red-handed by the Kolkata police while receiving Rs 50 lakh as the first instalment.
Kolkata police stated that Rajiv Kumar was arrested along with Rs 50 Lakh cash which he had extorted from Amit Agrawal.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also summoned Amit Agarwal-a Kolkata based businessman who allegedly trapped Kumar. The probe agency has summoned businessman Amit Agarwal to turn up at Ranchi based ED office by August end. The ED summoning Agarwal assumes importance as the opposition party BJP, on several occasions, has alleged that Agarwal is close to top JMM leadership.