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CBI books Kolkata bizman, cops for filing false case against Jharkhand lawyer
The Kolkata businessman allegedly lodged a false case against a Jharkhand lawyer, who filed a PIL against chief minister Hemant Soren
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a first information report (FIR) against a Kolkata-based businessman, Amit Agrawal, for allegedly lodging a false case against a Ranchi-based lawyer, Rajeev Kumar, who was representing a petitioner in two public interest litigations (PILs) seeking CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe against Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren in Jharkhand high court.
The FIR has been filed after conducting a preliminary enquiry on direction of the Jharkhand high court dated November 30, 2022. Besides the businessman, Amit Kumar Agrawal, the central agency has also made ‘unknown officials’ of the Kolkata police and ‘unknown others’ as accused in the FIR, registered in Delhi, for cognisable offences under Section 120-B (Criminal conspiracy) and 182 (False information) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, officials said.
Amit Agrawal had on July 31, 2022 filed a case with Hare Street police station in Kolkata against Rajeev Kumar and Shiv Shankar Sharma, petitioner of the two PILs against Soren, that he had demanded a bribe of ₹10 crore for getting a PIL dismissed against a local business in Jharkhand high court.
Kumar was arrested by the Kolkata police the same day while he was receiving ₹50 lakh from Agrawal.
The CBI in its FIR has, however, charged that it was Agrawal who contacted Kumar through a third person, Sonu Agrawal, and ‘induced’ the lawyer for taking money for ‘getting the PIL dismissed’ and later handed over ₹50 lakh to the latter and ‘got him trapped’ by the Kolkata police.
“…Enquiry further revealed that the information provided by Amit Agrawal to Hare Street police station was false and the bribe was given to Rajeev Kumar by alluring him with an intention to interfere with the judicial process. Contrary to the allegations made in the complaint to the Hare Street PS, it was Amit Agrawal who called Rajeev Kumar to Kolkata through Sonu Agrawal and offered him money. Further, the conversation (with Rajeev Kumar) recorded by Agrawal also does not reveal any threat for extortion from Rajeev Kumar,” the CBI said in its preliminary enquiry (PE), based on which the FIR was registered on January 18, 2022.
“…Enquiry has therefore revealed that Amit Agrawal had called Rajeev Kumar to Kolkata and offered and gave him ₹50 lakhs to induce public servant to get the PIL dismissed,” it added.
Before filing the case against Rajeev Kumar on July 31, 2022, the CBI also alleged in its preliminary enquiry (PE) that Agrawal, had in March, 2022, tried to influence the lawyer in connection with the PILs through the then Ranchi deputy commissioner.
One Shiv Shankar Sharma, represented by Rajeev Kumar, had filed two PILs seeking prosecution against Hemant Soren for owning a mining lease and had sought a CBI and ED investigation into alleged money laundering by Soren’s family through shell companies operated by Amit Agrawal and others.
While the Jharkhand high court had termed the two PILS maintainable, the Supreme Court set aside the order on November 7, 2022, due to lack of ‘credentials’ of the petitioner and allegations based on ‘half-baked’ truth.
In the meanwhile, the ED had recorded an enforcement complaint information report (ECIR) on August 10, 2022, using the Hare Street PS FIR as predicate offence, and launched a money laundering investigation, making both Agrawal and Kumar, accused in the case. Subsequently, both Kumar and Agrawal were arrested in the case. Both are currently out on bail.
In its first prosecution complaint filed before the special PMLA court in Ranchi, the ED too had charged that it was Amit Agrawal who had lured Kumar in taking the money in order to ‘influence and frustrate’ the PIL pending before the Jharkhand high court for ‘extracting himself and his companies’.
Agrawal, however, moved Jharkhand high court, seeking quashing of the ECIR filed by the ED and terming his detention ‘wrongful and illegal’. Agrawal also pleaded for an independent inquiry by an SIT headed by a retired Supreme Court or high court judge into the ECIR, alleging that the case against him was an attempt to divert the investigation and save the accused in the Hare Street PS case as ‘involvement of senior ED officers has come to light.
Disposing the petition, the bench of justice Sanjay Dwivedi rejected the first two pleas, while the court allowed the third prayer (of an independent inquiry) of the petitioner and directed the CBI to conduct a preliminary enquiry in two weeks, before the CBI director chooses to take further course of action over the matter.
Based on the PE, the CBI on January 18 registered the case and also conducted searches at locations connected with Agrawal in West Bengal and Jharkhand on January 19, officials said.
