The special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court of Prabhat Kumar Sharma granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) six days police remand of advocate Rajiv Kumar. The police custody will be effective from August 20.
The ED secured six days’ remand of Jharkhand High Court advocate Rajiv Kumar currently lodged at Alipur Jail in Bengal following his arrest by the Kolkata police last month. Kumar, who is known for filing PIL was produced before the PMLA court through video conferencing from Alipur jail. Following six days of police custody of Kumar, a team of senior ED officials has left for Kolkata to bring back Rajiv Kumar to Ranchi for questioning.
The ED in its plea stated that the agency has taken up a case for investigation related to seizure of Rs 50 lakh from the possession of Rajiv Kumar in which his police remand will be required. The FIR was originally lodged by the Kolkata police at Hare Street police station. The ED said that the agency lodged an ECIR in Ranchi and Rajiv Kumar is the accused in this case.
Kumar was arrested by Kolkata police on July 31 on the charges of extorting money from Kolkatta based trader Amit Agrawal for giving him relief in a PIL 4290/21 filed by Shiv Shankar Sharma at Jharkhand High Court. On Behalf of Sharma, advocate Kumar is pleading the PIL case. Police said that he was trapped along with the cash, which he had extorted from Amit Agrawal in the name of safeguarding him in a PIL 4290/21 against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
Kumar was arrested by the Kolkata police allegedly with Rs 50 lakh in his possession. Reportedly, Kumar had filed a PIL in Ranchi High Court against a Kolkata-based businessman and was asking Rs 10 crore to withdraw the PIL. After negotiations, he allegedly settled at Rs 1 crore for which the first instalment of Rs 50 lakh was paid and he was caught red-handed with it.
On August 10, the ED took over the investigation of this case and an ECIR was lodged at the Ranchi zonal office of the agency. The ED prayed the PMLA court to issue a production order for Rajiv Kumar.
Rajiv Kumar, who has represented over 100 PILs, is popularly known as the ‘PIL Man’ in Jharkhand. A few days before his arrest, he had filed three PILs on behalf of a petitioner Shiv Shankar Sharma.
Two of the PILs are against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, of which one is regarding the allocation of mining lease by the CM. The third one is against Soren’s close aides accused of money laundering and alleged investments in shell companies, which are currently being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).