Kolkata, Aug 8 (IANS): Kolkata Police have sent a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) deputy director Subodh Kumar, currently posted in Bhubaneswar, in connection with the arrest of a Ranchi-based advocate at Kolkata with huge cash last week.

On August 1, the sleuths of the Detective Department (DD) of Kolkata Police nabbed Ranchi-based advocate Rajiv Kumar, with cash worth Rs 60 lakh from a shopping mall in central Kolkata. The money seized from him was an advance of an extortion amount from a Kolkata-based businessman, who paid the cash to Kumar for getting his name withdrawn from a PIL filed by the latter at the Ranchi High Court.

The said ED officer, Subodh Kumar was posted in Ranchi from 2016 to 2022. City police sources said that from Kumar's mobile, it was noticed that he had several conversations with the said central agency official. "We need to question him about his links with Kumar," a senior city police official said.

It is learnt that a team of DD officials will leave for Bhubaneswar from Kolkata on Monday night to question the said ED official on Tuesday.

It is learnt that Kumar had been the mastermind behind as many as 800 PILs.

Kolkata Police officials suspect that filing PILs was part of his bigger ploy to trap and blackmail the rich and get a heavy ransom amount from them. "We are interrogating him," the official added.

A team of Kolkata Police officials also visited Kumar's Ranchi-based residence and seized certain crucial documents that give clear hints about how he ran an extortion racket under the garb of PILs. He is currently in police custody and will be presented at a lower court in Kolkata on August 10.

Subodh Kumar's counsel has claimed that his client was a victim of conspiracy. According to him, the shopping mall where he was purportedly arrested was under the Kareya police station, whereas the case was registered against him at Hare Street Police Station.