Former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, has filed a petition before the Barasat district judge court on Tuesday morning seeking anticipatory bail against possible arrest by the CBI. He had earlier on Saturday, ignored CBI summons in the Saradha ponzi case.
Earlier in the morning, a special court in the district refused to hear the petition. As per some CBI officers present there, “whether the petition will be accepted for hearing or rejected would be clear only after midday.”
A Calcutta High Court bench removed his shield against arrest on Friday and since then Kumar has been incommunicado. He was summoned to the CBI office on Saturday but he ignored the summons and also switched off his phone. A CBI team had gone to his house, but did not find him there.
As per reports, Kumar has sent an e-mail to the agency on Saturday, saying he is on leave and hence cannot respond to the summons in connection with the Sharadha chit fund case.
Rajeev Kumar, a 1989 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer was the head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee government, to investigate the scandal related to the 2013 collapse of Saradha Group, which allegedly ran Ponzi schemes that duped hundreds of thousands of investors.
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Kumar has been accused of concealing and tampering with evidence to shield influential beneficiaries of the scheme. According to the CBI, he was also involved in protecting certain politicians from an investigation.
The scam is believed to be to the tune of ₹2,460 crore, most of which was deposits made by lower middle-class and poor people from states such as Bengal, Assam, Odisha and Jharkhand.
As per reports, the CBI may approach the court and seek a non-bailable warrant against the former top cop on the grounds that he is not cooperating. He is right now within the rights to arrest.