Former ED assistant director Manoj Kumar surrenders

Former Enforcement Directorate assistant director Manoj Kumar was on Wednesday remanded to police custody till May 12 after he surrendered before a city court in connection with an extortion case that allegedly revealed his links with the accused in the Rose Valley chit fund scam.

Kamal Somani, a chartered accountant, had lodged a complaint at Shakespeare Sarani police station here, alleging that money had been extorted from him following raids led by Kumar at his firm.

Kumar, the investigating officer in the Rose Valley case, was removed from the position by the ED after the Kolkata police, probing the charges of extortion against him, found CCTV footage which purportedly showed the ex-ED officer with Shubhra Kundu, the wife of Rose Valley Group head Gautam Kundu, at a Delhi hotel.

Rejecting Kumar's bail plea, 5th Special Judge, Bankshall Court, Debabrata Sinha sent him to police remand till May 12 after he surrendered earlier in the day. Kumar's anticipatory bail pleas had earlier been rejected by the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court.

Rejecting his anticipatory bail plea on March 28, the apex court had directed Kumar to surrender within a week.

He has been booked for extortion, criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Tarun Chatterjee, the state's counsel, submitted before the Bankshall Court that Pradeep had taken Rs 75 lakh from the complainant and the money was handed over to him in the latter's office in Everest Building in central Kolkata.

He further submitted that the preliminary investigation has revealed that a share of the money is with some Manoj's relatives. Moreover, Pradeep had bought air ticket worth Rs 4 lakh for a foreign trip of Manoj and investigating officers have found huge discrepancies in his bank statement and Income Tax related documents.

At the same time, an inter-state link has also been found in the preliminary probe as a part of the money is also suspected to have been sent to some people in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Firoz Edulzi, counsel of the former assistant director of ED, submitted before the court that Manoj has been framed out of a vindictive attitude.