The meeting between Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar and officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which took place for over eight hours in Shillong today, will continue tomorrow for the third day.
Sources said that the CBI authorities have informed Kumar about the need to continue with the meeting on Monday.
Kumar has said that he will be present in the CBI office again on Monday. An officer denied that the city police commissioner had wanted to be back in the city because his work was being affected. “The question of refusing to attend the meeting CBI has asked for, does not arise. He is certainly going to be present at the meeting tomorrow,” a senior officer of Kolkata Police said. “The question of not cooperating in the probe doesn’t arise,” the officer added.
While Kumar is being asked about the investigations into the Saradha chit fund scam, there are some reports that the CBI is also going into details of the probe into the Rose Valley case.
Today was the second day of the session. Kumar had reached Shillong on Friday, and the meeting with CBI officers started on Saturday. It continued for several hours, and the officers wanted to talk to him again on Sunday. The meeting on Sunday continued for several hours again, with the CBI officers informing him that they would like to continue with the session again on Monday.
The two-day session has been video-recorded at the request of Kumar, so that it can be used for future reference.
“It is to be noted that Kumar has been accused of not cooperating with the CBI. Why then would he insist on recording the entire session?” an officer had told The Bengal Story on Saturday. “This indicates that the allegations of non-cooperation are baseless,” he added.
The meetings are taking place in Shillong after the Supreme Court directive that Kumar cannot be arrested and asking him to cooperate with the probe and to meet the CBI officers at a ‘neutral’ location as requested by him.
CBI has prepared a team of 10 officers for this “questioning”. Also, some of the accused who had been arrested earlier by the West Bengal police in connection with the Saradha chit fund investigation have been asked to be present in Shillong. Accordingly, Kunal Ghosh, former Trinamool Congress member of Parliament, who had been arrested by the state police, reached Shillong and was present at the CBI office today.
There has been an unprecedented face-off between the Centre and the Bengal government over the issue as things reached a flashpoint last Sunday when CBI officers landed outside Kumar’s residence apparently to conduct a “secret” operation.
