WB court turns down former Kolkata top cop Rajiv Kumar's bail plea

A lower court here on Friday turned down former Kolkata police commissioner Rajiv Kumar's anticipatory bail plea seeking an extension of protection from arrest in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.

The court turned down his "faulty application" submitted before it.

"Former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar's lawyers submitted a faulty application at the lower court in Barasat around 4 pm which was turned down. Subsequent documents were said to be missing, being the reason why his application was rejected," Public prosecutor Sushovan Mitra told reporters here.

This comes after Supreme Court earlier in the day refused to entertain a plea of former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar seeking an extension of the seven-day period granted to him to approach a competent court for protection from arrest in connection with Saradha chit fund scam case.

A vacation bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai and Surya Kant while disposing of the petition, said, "You (Kumar) can go to the Calcutta High Court or trial courts in Bengal. The courts are functional and all the judges are sitting. There is no vacation there. Seek appropriate remedy."

Kumar had approached the apex court seeking an extension of protection from arrest, claiming that he was not able to access the legal remedies in West Bengal since lawyers in the state were on strike.

He had submitted that the chances of his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the Saradha case, were imminent after the apex court withdrew the shield on May 17.

While vacating its order, a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna had said that the order should not be treated as a direction to the CBI for custodial interrogation and asked the investigating agency to act as per law.

The CBI, in its plea, had sought permission for custodial interrogation of Kumar, who earlier headed West Bengal Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the chit fund scam, over his alleged role in destroying evidence in the case.

An unprecedented chain of events had unfolded on February 3 when a CBI team was detained by Kolkata Police when it reached Kumar's residence to question him. It was followed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to the officer's home. The CBI officers were taken to a police station and later released.