Bizman over whom lawyer was held not named in PIL

RANCHI: The arrest of senior advocate Rajeev Kumar took a new turn on Tuesday after it came to light that the name of Amit Agrawal was not there in the PIL (4290/21), for which he has been arrested allegedly for demanding money to remove his name. He had apparently filed a PIL in Ranchi High Court against Kolkata-based businessman Amit Agrawal and was asking Rs 10 crore to withdraw his name from it.

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. Subsequently, advocate Rajeev Kumar, also known as the PIL man of Jharkhand who has filed PILs seeking probe against CM Hemant Soren for alleged irregularities in the grant of mining leases and also on transactions of some shell companies purportedly operated by his family members and associates, was arrested by Kolkata Police on Sunday and sent on police custody on the charges of blackmailing a businessman after filing a PIL against him in Jharkhand High Court. 

Coming in his support, former BJP minister and independent MLA Saryu Roy said Rajeev is victim of a well-known dirty trick in politics. “Anybody/everybody may be fixed this way or that way by dirty trick variants,” Roy posted on Twitter.