Supreme Court to hear CBI plea against Kolkata top cop tomorrow, Mamata continues dharna

While Mamata Banerjee began an indefinite dharna against the CBI move, the Supreme Court has asked the probe agency to produce evidence proving Kumar's alleged attempt to tamper evidences in the chit fund scams after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for CBI, said that the Kolkata Police Commissioner was destroying evidence.

 

Hearing on CBI plea in SC: CJI Gogoi says, "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." #WestBengal pic.twitter.com/4VRhH7b4Ff

— ANI (@ANI) February 4, 2019

Amid the high drama unfolding in Kolkata over West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's "sit-in protest" against the CBI's move to interrogate Rajeev Kumar, the central investigating agency on Monday moved the Supreme Court against the state government over its "non-cooperation".

CBI told IBNS that it has concrete evidence against Rajeev Kumar and hence he was summoned. Kumar did not speak to media yet on the controversy.

Things took a nasty turn on Sunday after CBI officials went to Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar's house to quiz him over his alleged involvement in chit fund scams and alleged destruction of evidence.

When the CBI officials reached Kumar's residence, they were whisked away by Kolkata police officers.

Reminding her days as an opposition leader, Mamata soon started a "sit-in-protest" at Metro channel in downtown Kolkata from Sunday night against the CBI's move. She has been continuing the protest since last evening now.

The Chief Minister alleged that the CBI is acting as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi's order.

Rajeev Kumar: Development so far

Rajeev Kumar, who was seen emerging after Mamata met him, was wanted for questioning in connection with investigations into several ponzi scams.

He did not speak to media.

He had headed the special investigation team investigating into the Saradha and Rose Valley scams. Kumar has been accused of tampering with evidence to save several influential people in the state.

CBI defended their action. "As we found concrete evidences against Rajeev Kumar, we had summoned him. As he did not respond to our notices, our officers went to his residence in south Kolkata today to quiz him with all valid documents and paper-works," CBI joint commissioner Pankaj Kumar Srivastava told IBNS after probe agency officials were whisked away from the gate of the residence of Rajeev Kumar and detained in a police station when they went to his residence to quiz him on the Rose Valley and Saradha chit fund scams.

"After being directed by the Supreme Court, we are probing the chit fund cases. For last two years, we have repeatedly been sending notices to Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, asking him to appear before our investigators for interrogation as he was the chief of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was constituted by the state government and it probed the matter in preliminary stage," said Srivastava.

"After starting investigation, we found that several evidences were destroyed or misplaced," he said.

"As he did not respond to our notices, our officers went to his residence in south Kolkata today to quiz him with all valid documents and paper-works. Unfortunately, without cooperating with our officers, police manhandled them and detained them. We will take adequate legal steps against the actions of Kolkata Police," he said.

Counting the CBI, Praveen Tripathi, Jt CP, Crime, Kolkata Police, said: "Those CBI officers told us that they had gone to CP's house for a 'secret operation'. They failed to produce adequate documents relating to the raid or interrogation. When we asked them why they were here and what questions they wanted to ask, they could not give any answer."

Amid media reports that Kumar has not been attending his office for the past three days and has gone missing, the Kolkata Police earlier rubbished the reports and said in a statement: "Kolkata Police condemns and denies such baseless news. Please take note that not only is the CP Kolkata available in the city, but has also been attending office on a regular basis, with the exception of 31.1.19, when he was on leave for a day."

Kolkata Police Additional Commissioner of Kolkata Police Javed Shamim called a press conference to say the reports of Rajeev Kumar absconding are fake news and legal action would be taken against publications of the news.  Kumar reportedly even did not attend a meeting with the Election Commission last week.