RANCHI: Senior advocate Rajeev Kumar, against whom the ED has filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and who is out on bail, claimed in a letter to the Jharkhand DGP that he is facing a life threat from Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his aides and needs extra security.
Kumar had been arrested by the Kolkata Police allegedly with Rs 50 lakh in his possession on July 31.
He had filed a PIL in the Ranchi High Court against a Kolkata-based businessman and was reportedly seeking Rs 10 crore to withdraw the PIL. After negotiations, he allegedly settled for Rs 1 crore. The Rs 50 lakh he was caught with was allegedly the first installment of the hush money.
According to the letter by Kumar, known as Jharkhand's PIL man, he has been getting regular life threats from people related to CM Soren and his aides. Kumar, in his letter, went on to state that CM Soren, his aides Pankaj Mishra, Prem Prakash and Amit Agrawal should be held responsible if anything untoward happens to him or his family.
"Therefore, please extend security cover to me and my family against the eminent threat in the last few days. A number of people related to Hemant Soren, Pankaj Mishra, Prem Prakash and Amit Agrawal have threatened me. So, please provide enough security to me and my family,” the senior advocate wrote to the DGP.According to Kumar, he had previously been given a security guard for protection, but due to his being implicated in the false case now, the guard was withdrawn. Since he is out on bail and doing his job as an advocate in Jharkhand High Court, he was facing many threats from different quarters, he claimed.
Kumar had filed PILs seeking probes against CM Soren for the alleged irregularities in the grant of mining leases and also covering the transactions that some shell companies purportedly operated by his family members and associates indulged in.