Days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Partha Chatterjee in connection with a teacher recruitment scam, Kolkata Police issued a notice to an Odisha-based ED officials for questioning in an extortion case.

According to reports, the police summoned ED’s Deputy Director Subodh Kumar, who is currently posted in Bhubaneswar, in connection with the arrest of a Ranchi-based advocate in Kolkata with a huge amount of cash last week.

Earlier on August 1, Kolkata Police nabbed advocate Rajiv Kumar from a shopping mall in the capital city of West Bengal. He had more than Rs 60 lakh in his possession. 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was an advance of an extortion amount from a Kolkata-based businessman, who paid the cash to Kumar for getting his name withdrawn from a PIL filed by the latter at the Ranchi High Court.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 Kumar has 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.

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.