CBI grilling of Rajeev Kumar likely to continue till 9 pm

The questioning of Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajiv Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam by a CBI team in Shillong is likely to continue till 9 pm, a senior official of the agency said on Saturday.

The marathon questioning began at 11 am this morning at the highly secured CBI office at Oakland in Shillong as per the directions of the Supreme Court, the official said.

Kumar was the functional head of the special investigation team (SIT) formed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to probe the case before it was handed over to the CBI by the apex court.

Three senior CBI sleuths reached Shillong from Delhi on Friday for the questioning.

The Supreme Court had on Tuesday directed the Kolkata Police chief to appear before the CBI and "faithfully" cooperate in the investigation of cases arising out of the Saradha chit fund scam.

It chose Shillong as the neutral meeting place "to avoid all unnecessary controversy", while making it clear that Kumar will not be arrested.

On February 3, a team of CBI officials had gone to Kumar's residence in Kolkata to question him, but their attempt was thwarted by the police, following which Banerjee had staged a three-day sit-in.

The central investigating agency had said that its officials had wanted to question Kumar to plug the holes in the Saradha scam probe as he was allegedly in possession of certain key documents as a member of the SIT.