Centre moves SC for arresting Kolkata top cop

The Supreme Court on Monday warned of strong action if Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar was found "even remotely thinking of destroying" evidence in the Saradha chit fund scam as the Centre moved the top court for arresting him.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi will hear the matter tomorrow.

The Centre moved the Supreme Court a day after the CBI was prevented by the Kolkata Police from arresting Kumar for allegedly destroying evidence in the case and attempting to create hurdles in the investigation.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Court that electronic evidence had been destroyed. He also said that the CBI had issued four summons, to which no response was received from Kumar.

The Supreme Court then permitted CBI to bring material on record to support its claim that the West Bengal Police Commissioner was trying to destroy evidence.

"If Commissioner of Police is even remotely thinking of destroying evidence, bring the material before this court. We will come down so heavily on him that he will regret," said CJI Gogoi.

The TMC-led West Bengal government and the Centre locked horns on Sunday when a CBI team moved to arrest the Kolkata Police Commissioner.

Interim CBI chief M Nageshwar Rao alleged that there was proof that suggested Kumar had tampered with evidence in the chit fund scam."They have taken charge of all the evidence, seized all the documents. They have not been cooperating with us in handing over all the documents and a lot of evidence has been destroyed or caused to disappear," Rao said.