Can't let go Bengal CS, DGP in contempt plea by CBI: SC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to let go the West Bengal Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police (DGP) in a contempt plea by the CBI allegedly for not cooperating with it in the investigation of the Saradha chit fund scam.

While declining the plea for the discharge of two top state officers, for now, the bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjiv Khanna asked the probe agency to file a separate application on its prayer relating to something "very serious" about the former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar mentioned in the status report.

"Something is brought to our knowledge. It is very serious. Should we close our eyes to that? It warrants some orders," the court said

The court asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a separate application with supporting material relating to something "very serious" about Rajeev Kumar after it perused the status report on the quizzing of the officer by the CBI in Shillong last month.

The status report was submitted in a sealed cover and it was put back in the cover after judges perused it.

Observing that since the status report was in a sealed cover and the other side does not know about its content, the court said that it cannot pass any order.

Rajeev Kumar had submitted to the questioning by the CBI on the directions of the top court which came on the contempt plea filed by the investigating agency.

The CBI has alleged that the Chief Secretary, DGP of the state and Rajeev Kumar were not co-operating in the investigation of the Saradha chit fund scam and were holding back the evidence initially collected by the state SIT before the probe was handed over to it.

The court gave CBI 10 days' time to move the application and two weeks' time to Rajeev Kumar to respond to it.

"It is after that we will determine the charges and counter-charges after hearing both sides," CJI Gogoi said in his order.

The top court in the last hearing of the matter on February 27 had directed the CBI Director to file an affidavit stating "full facts" of the alleged "incomplete and incorrect" information furnished by Rajeev Kumar relating to the evidence collected by the state SIT investigating the Saradha chit fund scam before the court handed it over to the CBI.

--IANS

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