CBI lets Kolkata police chief go after five days consecutive questioning

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday allowed Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to leave Shillong after questioning him in the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scams for five consecutive days.

Kumar, who was grilled in the Shillong CBI office, had written to the CBI seeking to give him a "break" so that he can prepare his reply to the contempt petition filed by the CBI in the Supreme Court against him and two other senior officers earlier this month.

"He (Kumar) had submitted a letter to the CBI requesting to give him a break so that he can prepare his reply to the contempt petition filed in the Supreme Court against him," a CBI official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

The CBI has filed contempt petition in the Supreme Court against Kumar on February 4 for alleged non-cooperation on the Saradha chit-fund scam.

Soon after the CBI grilled him for three hours on Wednesday, Kumar left for Kolkata via Guwahati.

Kolkata's Additional Police Commissioner Javed Shamim, Special Task Force Chief Murlidhar Sharma and CID Chief Praveen Kumar Tripathi, who accompanied Kumar to Shillong, also left along with him.

Kumar arrived in Shillong on February 8 from Kolkata via Guwahati after the apex court directed him to join the CBI probe at a "neutral place" in Shillong.

The CBI had confronted former Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh with Kumar in connection with the investigation conducted by Kolkata Police's Special Investigation Team on the chit fund scams in West Bengal.

Ghosh, who had left Shillong on Tuesday, said that he has lodged an "official complaint" against Kumar for allegedly influencing the ongoing probe.

"I have lodged a written complaint with the CBI against Kumar.... During our face to face interrogation on February 10, certain Kolkata Police officers were named. But Kumar called up some of those officers after leaving the CBI office that night," Ghosh alleged.

"When I had sought justice in 2013, Kumar had not cared for me. I felt bad to see that an IPS officer like him has to face hours of questioning like this. Had he played an active role at that time, he would not have to face the CBI interrogation now," he added.

Ghosh had earlier implicated former Union Minister Mukul Roy, who has quit the Trinamool Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and 12 others in the Saradha chit fund case.

The CBI is likely to move the Supreme Court seeking permission to quiz Saradha Group Chairman Sudipta Sen and his close aide Debjani Mukherjee in connection with the chit fund case.

They also want to confront Kumar with Sen and Mukherjee on the chit fund scams.

--IANS

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