SC asks Kolkata police chief to cooperate with CBI; no arrest
05 Feb 2019
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Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar who is accused of shielding the Sharada Chit Fund scam accused, got some reprieve from the Supreme Court which barred the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from arresting him, but said he has to appear before the CBI in Shillong and make available all evidence and cooperate with investigations into chit fund scams in Bengal.
The CBI told the Supreme Court that Kolkata police chief Rajeev Kumar's Special Investigative Team that probed the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund cases of "doctoring evidence" and "shielded guilty companies".
The Kolkata police chief is at the vortex of a huge showdown between the CBI and Mamata Banerjee, who is on Day 3 of her indefinite protest sit-in against the CBI probe into the police chief in connection with the Sharada and Rose Valley Chit Fund scams.
An angry Trinamool Congress chief also ordered the arrest of the CBI officers instead for team for door-stepping Rajeev Kumar on Sunday evening to question him on "missing evidence" in the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund cases.
Several members of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress have been arrested in the cases, which were probed by a Special Investigation Team led by Rajeev Kumar.
The CBI told the Supreme Court that Rajeev Kumar's investigation "shielded guilty companies" and there was "inaction, selective action and a nexus" between the police and the accused companies. The evidence handed over by the team "is not complete and it was doctored", the CBI added in its affidavit listing allegations against the Kolkata police chief.
The CBI moved to the Supreme Court on Monday, after its team that arrived at Rajeev Kumar's Kolkata home was blocked by the police, bundled into buses and detained for a few hours.
The CBI told the court today that call data records given to the CBI by the Special Investigation Team were not complete and less calls were shown in the data. "The SIT gave us doctored copies of call records," said the CBI's lawyer.
The CBI wanted to question the police chief, a "potential accused," on missing documents, but said he had not responded to repeated summons over the past two years. The police chief also skipped an Election Commission meeting on poll preparations, spurring talk that he was"absconding".
The CBI has said in its affidavit that the SIT "used to shield selective companies such as Saradha, Rose Valley and Tower Group, which had given huge contributions to the party in power (Trinamool Congress) in West Bengal".
