Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar is in Shillong to face Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers probing the Sarada chit fund scam in which he been accused by the agency of tampering with evidence and obstructing the process of enquiry. The meeting between the CBI and the Kolkata Police chief started at around 11.30 this morning.
This comes after the Supreme Court directive that he cannot be arrested and asked him to cooperate with the probe and to meet the CBI officers at a ‘neutral’ location as requested by him.
Kumar reached the CBI’s Shillong office to cooperate with the investigation as directed by the Supreme Court. The CBI had alleged that the police commissioner had not responded to repeated requests for interviews. Suggesting a ‘neutral’ venue, the police commissioner had written several times to the investigative agency.
A team of investigators arrived in Shillong to take the process forward. Rajeev Kumar has also reached the Meghalayan capital accompanied by two top IPS officers of Kolkata Police Jawed Shamim and Murlidhar Sharma.
Shamim and Sharma accompanied Kumar to the CBI office this morning, but after some time, they left the office, indicating that Kumar was to face the CBI officers alone.
CBI has prepared a team of 10 officers who will question Kumar. Also, some of the accused who had been arrested earlier by the state police in connection with the Saradha chit fund investigation have been asked to be present. Sources indicated that the meeting is likely to continue beyond today. However, the Kolkata Police authorities are saying that it is difficult for the city police chief to stay outside for so long, especially in view of the coming board examinations.
Accused of tampering with ‘electronic evidence’ and of having doctored vital documents, things reached an impasse last weekend when CBI officers landed outside his residence on Sunday evening apparently in a “secret” operation.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee stepped in and staged a three-day ‘dharna’ against the move and the breakdown of the country’s democracy. Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of using the CBI to carry out political witch-hunts, the Trinamool chief led the protest against the Centre to ‘save the Constitution’ from the Metro channel in Kokata’s Esplanade area.
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