After SC order, CBI starts forming 'special' team to quiz Kolkata CP Rajeev Kumar
Kolkata/New Delhi, Feb 5 (IBNS): After getting the Supreme Court's nod on Tuesday morning, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has begun constituting a special team to interrogate Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with its ongoing probe into several chit fund scams, officials said.
According to sources, a team under the leadership of CBI DSP Tathagata Bardhan is being formed to grill the Kolkata top cop in Shillong.
"As Kolkata CP Rajeev Kumar holds the rank of Additional Director General (ADG), an SP-rank CBI official will be present during the interrogation in Shillong," a CBI official told IBNS.
"A copy of the Supreme Court's order has been forwarded to our Shillong office as the country's apex court selected the place to quiz the top cop in chit fund probe," the official added.
Sources in the Central probe agency said that a high level meeting is currently underway at the New Delhi CBI headquarters to decode the court's order and to set next steps.
"After checking the order's copy properly and looking into other aspects, we will send a fresh notice to Rajeev Kumar very soon asking him to appear before our investigators at Shillong office," a senior CBI officer said.
As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's dharna (sit-in protest) against Central Bureau of Investigation's move to quiz Rajeev Kumar entered its third day, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Kolkata Police chief should make himself available for the federal agency
The top court said the police chief cannot be arrested but he has to make available all evidence to the CBI and cooperate with it in the chit funds scam.
The central investigating agency on Monday moved the Supreme Court against the state government over its "non-cooperation".
The Supreme Court has asked the probe agency to produce evidence proving Kumar's alleged attempt to tamper evidence in the chit fund scams.
Demanding evidence, the top court said as quoted in media: "If Kolkata Police Commissioner even remotely thinks of destroying evidence, bring the material before this Court. We will come down so heavily on him that he will regret."
On Sunday, a group of CBI officials tried to enter Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar's residence to what they said interrogate him in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam. The CBI alleged that some important documents relating to the scam were missing. The sleuths were, however, physically prevented by the Kolkata police personnel and were even detained for sometime. The matter is now pending with the Supreme Court following an appeal by the central investigation agency.
Banerjee immediately sat on a dharna protesting attack on the constitution and accusing the Centre of using CBI for "political vendetta." Several opposition leaders, including Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and DMK leader Kanimozhi- all of whom amid a nationwide effort to stitch an anti-BJP coalition to overthrow the Narendra Modi Government in the coming Lok Sabha elections-expressed their solidarity with Banerjee.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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