SC to hear contempt plea against ex-Kolkata Police Commissioner tomorrow

The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to take up the matter related to the initiation of contempt proceedings against West Bengal Chief Secretary, DGP and also Rajeev Kumar, who was then Kolkata Police Commissioner, tomorrow for alleged non-cooperation in a case connected with the Saradha chit fund scam.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said, "We are not passing any order".

The contempt petition, filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), was listed before it today to decide whether to issue summons to Rajeev Kumar, Chief Secretary Malay Kumar De and DGP Virendera Kumar, to appear before it on Wednesday.

Earlier, the apex court had said it will decide on February 19 on the personal appearance of the three officers in court after perusing their responses.

The CBI had filed the contempt plea in the Supreme Court against the three officers for alleged willful and deliberate violation of the top court's orders.

The plea was filed after an unprecedented chain of events took place on February 3 when a CBI team was detained by the Kolkata Police after they reached Kumar's residence and subsequently Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also rushed to his residence. The CBI officers were taken to police station and released later.

On Monday, the three officers had filed their affidavits on the contempt plea and refuted the allegations levelled by the CBI and also tendered an unconditional and unambiguous apology for alleged disobedience of the court.

The officers have said that they had neither obstructed a probe into the Saradha chit fund scam cases nor any official denied cooperation to CBI.

On February 3, Rajeev Kumar said that the CBI officers forcefully tried to enter his residence without valid papers.

The officers in their affidavit have also denied CBI's allegation that they were tampering with evidence.

On February 5, the bench had asked Rajeev Kumar to "faithfully" cooperate with the CBI in the investigation of cases arising out of the Saradha chit fund scam probe and asked him to appear before the CBI at Shillong, Meghalaya.

It had also directed the CBI not to take any coercive steps including the arrest of Rajeev Kumar.