A habeas corpus plea was filed before the Jharkhand High Court on Monday by the father of Ranchi-based lawyer Rajeev Kumar, who was arrested in Kolkata for alleged involvement in a fraud case.

Members of the advocate association also abstained from work in protest against the arrest.

Opposition BJP alleged that the arrest was an outcome of a “nexus” between the Jharkhand and West Bengal governments to “harass people who raise voice against corruption”.

Kumar’s father Satyadev Roy also sought a CBI probe.

Roy alleged his son has been “falsely implicated” and is the victim of a “larger political conspiracy”.

The division bench of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad is likely to hear the matter on Tuesday.

Kumar was arrested from a Kolkata shopping mall on Sunday, with police claiming to have seized Rs 50 lakh in cash from his possession.

The news of Kumar’s arrest spread like a wildfire among the lawyers’ fraternity in Ranchi.

The 5,000-member advocates’ association of the high court convened an emergency meeting and decided to stay away from work on Monday.

Kumar had been arguing on behalf of petitioners in the shell companies’ case against Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

He had also filed a PIL seeking an independent inquiry into the violence that rocked Ranchi on July 10 over the prophet remarks row.

“We are disturbed with the action of the police in West Bengal. A lawyer has been arrested under strange circumstances and nobody is revealing the facts to his family members,” secretary of the association Navin Kumar said.

State BJP chief Deepak Prakash alleged, “The arrest unmasked the nexus between Jharkhand and West Bengal governments to silence those who raise their voice against corruption and misdeeds in the state. Rajeev Kumar’s arrest amounts to murder of democracy.” Prakash alleged that the arrest is an outcome of a “deep conspiracy to silence those who raise their voice against corruption and scams in Jharkhand”.

(PTI)