BJP's Uttar Pradesh MLA and former Enforcement Directorate officer Rajeshwar Singh on Friday appeared as an advocate before the Supreme Court after he enrolled at the bar recently.
Mr Singh, 49, appeared in the court of Chief Justice of India N V Ramana as a counsel for a group of students who had petitioned the court against a medical college, sources said.
The bureaucrat who resigned and joined politics in March won the Sarojini Nagar assembly seat in Lucknow on a BJP ticket by a margin of over 56,000 votes.
The officer was granted VRS by the Union government only a month ahead of the polls while he was serving as the joint director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Lucknow.
Sources said Mr Singh enrolled as a lawyer in the Supreme Court in April and is also working on some Public Interest Litigations (PILs).
He completed his LLB in 2018 while working in the ED as its chief investigation officer in the money laundering case linked to the 2G spectrum allocation alleged scam case and other probes.
Talking to PTI, the MLA said by working as a lawyer, he will be able to help people of his constituency.
"Now, I will be in a better position to defend the rights of people of Sarojini Nagar. I can fight for justice up to the highest court for them," he said.
Mr Singh's elder sister Abha Singh, a lawyer, also tweeted a picture of her brother wearing black lawyer robes and standing outside the steps of the Supreme Court in Delhi.
"Congratulations dear brother @RajeshwarS73 on joining our #Legal #fraternity. The people of this country will now benefit from your legal brilliance. Keep shining!," she said.
Nr Singh began his civil service career with the Uttar Pradesh Police where he served for about 10 years and earned the moniker 'encounter cop' for undertaking some daring operations.
A BTech and PhD in police, human rights and social justice, Singh joined the ED in 2007 on deputation and worked there for 14 years.
He was permanently absorbed into the ED cadre in 2014 and headed some high-profile investigations into the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the money laundering cases against former Union finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, the Aircel-Maxis and VVIP choppers case.
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