Kolkata; In an unprecedented action, five CBI officers were detained by the Kolkata police after a scuffle outside city Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar’s house in the Salt Lake area. The CBI team is probing the Rose Valley and the Saradha ponzi scams and had reached Kumar’s residence to quiz him in the matter. It is the government claim that the agency had been trying to locate Kumar for the last few days.
However, he was allegedly not responding to notices to appear before the agency; nor was he accessible on phone. The CBI team was virtually hustled away from Kumar’s residence to the local police station; they were detained form some time before being released. Clearly livid at the action, sources said the CBI is contemplating moving the Apex Court in the matter. The police refused to comment on why it had “forcefully taken away” the CBI officers to the police station. This is the first challenge for new CBI chief Rishi Kumar Shukla, who will assume charge on Monday.
The interim chief Nageswar Rao said in a statement that they have evidence that Rajeev Kumar has been ‘instrumental in causing destruction of evidence and obstructing justice’ in the chit fund scam. In another development, Kolkata CBI chief expressed fear as the situation unfolded that he fears he may be arrested anytime. He also said that he has been prisoned inside his own house. As things reached a flashpoint, both West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and West Bengal Director General of Police also reached Kumar’s house.
In the afternoon, Mamata had tweeted describing Kumar as the best officer in the country. She also accused the BJP of scripting the controversy and planting fake reports that Kumar may be arrested for evading questioning in the chit fund case. Things came to a head at around 4 pm when Additional Commissioner of Kolkata Police Javed Shamim held a press meet and said the police would take action against defamatory reports carried by some media outlets which described Kumar as ‘missing’ and an ‘absconder. The Kolkata police said the reports were mala fide and planted.
Kumar, who headed the special investigation team probing the Saradha and Rose Valley Ponzi scams that had surfaced in Bengal in 2013, was asked to help the CBI with the investigation when several key documents of the cases allegedly went missing. The agency has alleged that documents were being destroyed in the commissioner’s office and at his residence. The high drama in Kolkata broke out just a day after Rishi Kumar Shukla was picked as the new director of CBI.
