CBI registers case against Kolkata Businessman, Bengal cops

RANCHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against Kolkata-based trader Amit Agrawal, unknown officials of Kolkata police and other unknown persons in connection with the seizure of Rs 50 lakh from the Jharkhand high court advocate, Rajeev Kumar, on July 31 last year when he was in Kolkata.
The case has been registered under sections 120b and 182 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act on Wednesday.
The CBI has also conducted raids at multiple locations and premises in Jharkhand and Kolkata in this regard on Thursday.
In a press statement, the agency said the step was taken following the Jharkhand HC directives on November 30, 2022, asking the CBI to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the conduct of Agrawal in scandalising the judiciary, the enforcement directorate officials and other government officials.
Notably, a PIL was filed by one Shiv Shankar Sharma through Kumar alleging that Agrawal and others were involved in the laundering of ill-gotten wealth of chief minister Hemant Soren and others through shell companies. Agrawal registered a complaint (222/2022 ) with the Hare Street police station in Kolkata on July 31 alleging that Kumar was demanding Rs 10 crore for getting the PIL dismissed. Agrawal then called Kumar to Kolkata and handed him Rs 50 lakh and got him trapped by the Kolkata police on the same day.
The CBI said the conversation between Agrawal and Kumar does not reveal any threat of extortion by the latter. It further said the Kolkata police invoked the provision of the Prevention of Corruption Act in the FIR without mentioning the name of any bureaucrat or unknown bureaucrats.
Reacting to the FIR, Kumar said, “I was repeatedly saying that Agrawal along with administrative and police officers had laid the trap to implicate me in the case. The CBI FIR based on preliminary enquiry has vindicated my stand.”