Kolkata Police Commissioner likely to move court alleging CBI “wilfully gave false information” to Supreme Court

Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar is likely to move court against the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleging the investigating agency “wilfully gave false information” to the Supreme Court in its affidavit, sources close to the officer told The Bengal Story.

Sources said that there are primarily three areas that the commissioner of police may point out.

One, it is with respect to the call record details. The affidavit says that “in spite of the continuous insistence and follow up by the CBI, Sh. Rajiv Kumar furnished only CDRs of the prime accused only on 28.6.2018. The CDRs of the accused, when analysed by the CBI, were found to be tampered, doctored and the material evidence had been destroyed”.

The CBI has told the court that these were found tampered with while comparing it with the records obtained from the service providers. The central agency added that the details were going to be submitted before the apex court in a “sealed cover”.

According to sources in Kolkata Police, the CDR had been requested by the CBI from Bidhannagar Commissionerate in 2018. But Kumar was not in charge of the Commissionerate at that time. “Moreover, why do they need it from Bidhannagar commissionerate when they can get it from the service provider?” an officer asked. Kumar had joined as the Kolkata Police commissioner in 2016 and was not in charge of handing over of the CDRs.

Two, the affidavit filed by the CBI states that Kumar was the functional head and day-to-day in-charge of the team that was probing the Saradha chit fund scam. However, officers pointed out that this is not the case. They pointed out that Kumar was not the functional head of the SIT (Special Investigation Team). “The functional head was the ADG-CID who would get the data from all units, collate it and give it to the CBI,” an officer said.

Three, the CBI’s affidavit states that an FIR of October 4, 2013 filed against Rose Valley in Durgapur police station was “suppressed by the SIT, functionally headed by” Kumar. “It is submitted that the said suppression resulted in non registration of RC against M/s Rose Vally in the State of W.B…in light of the same, the CBI sought to register RC against M/s Rose Valley in the State of Orissa and the investigation suffered,” says the affidavit.

Sources said that Kumar had nothing to do with the case registered in Durgapur, as it falls under the jurisdiction of the Asansol commissionerate. The Asansol commissioner of police has already provided a reply to this, said an officer adding that “A number of Rose Valley case details were provided to the CBI.”