Supreme Court hearing in contempt petition against Rajeev Kumar and others adjourned after Justice L Nageswara Rao recuses himself from case, new bench to hear matter on Feb 27

The matter relating to the initiation of contempt proceedings against West Bengal chief secretary, the Director General of Police and the former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, was adjourned by the Supreme Court on Wednesday after Justice L Nageswara Rao recused himself from the case. The bench is headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

Justice Rao recused himself from this case because he had earlier appeared for the West Bengal government in another case as a lawyer. A new bench will be formed for the case and the hearing will be on February 27.

The contempt petition was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the three officers for wilful and deliberate violation of the top court’s orders.

The notice was filed after unprecedented events on February 3 in Kolkata, when a team of 40 CBI officers landed outside the residence of Kumar, then commissioner of Kolkata Police, for an apparently “secret operation”, in connection with investigation of the Saradha chit fund scam. The Kolkata Police authorities stopped the CBI officers and the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, started a dharna to “Save Democracy”, alleging that the Centre was using the CBI to threaten states ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Subsequently, the CBI moved the Supreme Court alleging that Kumar had tampered with documents relating to the investigation of the Saradha chit fund scam and that he was not cooperating in the investigations. The officer has filed an affidavit denying this.

The apex court had asked Kumar to cooperate in the CBI’s investigation and said he could not be arrested. Following this, Kumar and the CBI officers met for five consecutive days in Shillong.