[ad_1]
Agarwal, though a complainant against senior advocate Rajiv Kumar – known as an PIL expert, who was handling two separate PILs against the chief minister – was arrested by Kolkata police with Rs 50 lakh in cash based on specific information given by Agarwal on July 31. The case was then taken up by ED on August 10 and Agarwal was arrested on October 7 by the ED after interrogation. The court of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi on Wednesday, while rejecting Agarwal’s application for release, directed the CBI to investigate the conspiracy angle in the case.
Agarwal’s counsel argued in the court that his client had filed a case in Hare Street police station against advocate Rajiv Kumar, stating that he had demanded Rs 1 crore for going soft in a public interest litigation involving Agarwal before Jharkhand High Court. Agarwal’s counsel said his client has been implicated by the ED.
The advocate for the Enforcement Directorate argued before the court that in a case involving corruption, both the bribe giver and taker are involved in the offence. Agarwal had agreed to give a bribe to Kumar and witnesses have revealed that Agarwal was instrumental in luring Kumar to come to Kolkata to trap him.
Kumar, after his arrest, was pressurised by the police to reveal his contacts and alleged association with government officials and judicial officers. His travel to Kolkata was also organised by one Sonu Kumar who happens to be an employee of Agarwal, the court was informed.
Agarwal should not have filed a writ petition: Court
The high court, after hearing the matter at length, rejected the plea for release of Agarwal from custody. Rather, the court observed that when Agarwal had an alternate remedy to file a bail application, he should not have filed a writ petition.
Hours before the court heard the matter, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had asked chief minister Hemant Soren and his government, through a tweet at 10.07 am if the CM would prefer all the cases being investigated by the CBI.
With his tweet he shared the clip of a vernacular media in which a key witness of ED had accused the state police of fabricating his statement.
Later, as soon as the high court’s order of handing over case to CBI for investigation broke, Dubey once again tweeted at 6.02 pm on Tuesday, “Only I had asked the CM if he wants all the corruption cases be investigated by ED and CBI. Today, the high court has handed over the corrupt Amit Agrawal’s PIL case to CBI. What will now happen to sand, stone chips, mining and transfer postings?”
BJP’s Babulal Marandi also attacked CM Hemant Soren, though softly. He said Soren should welcome the order of high court to hand over the investigation to CBI if he was honest. “Sabkuch dudh-paani ki tarah saaf ho jayega. Aap galat nahi honge to aapki chhavi me chaar chand lag jayega aur hum jaise aalochako ki bolti band ho jayegi,” (Everything would be crystal clear. If you are not wrong you would have the last laugh and we critics would be silenced for ever) he tweeted.
[ad_2]
Source link