New Delhi: The crucial hearing on CBI’s plea seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against three top West Bengal officials for allegedly obstructing probe in the Saradha chit fund scam could not take place in the Supreme Court on Wednesday as Justice L Nageswara Rao recused himself.
West Bengal Chief secretary Malay Kumar De, Director General of Police Virendera Kumar and the then Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar had on February 18 filed their responses to the contempt notice refuting CBI’s allegations. They asserted that the central sleuths forcefully tried to enter the police commissioner’s residence on February 3 without valid papers.
“There is a problem. My learned brother (Justice Rao) had appeared for the state government and he does not want to be part of the bench,” a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Rao and Sanjiv Khanna said at the outset. “I have no problem,” Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the CBI, quickly responded and urged the court to go ahead with the proceedings.
