CBI intensifies search for former Kolkata police commissioner

The CBI has issued a fresh notice to former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar asking him to appear before it on September 20 as it continued to search for him at various locations across Kolkata in connection with the Saradha ponzi scheme scam, officials said on Thursday.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team branched out at the IPS officers' mess at Alipore in Kolkata and a five-star hotel on EM Bypass "enquiring" about Kumar during the day, they said.

The probe agency on Thursday also moved a city court seeking an arrest warrant against Kumar in connection with the scam.

The CBI, in a fresh letter to the West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP), has sought Kumar's phone number on which he could be contacted, sources said.

It has set up a special team to trace Kumar, a 1989-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who allegedly "evaded" the agency's notices to appear before it in connection with the Saradha Ponzi scheme case, the sources said.

They added that Kumar did not appear for questioning despite CBI's notices after the Kolkata High Court withdrew the protection given to him from arrest last Friday.

The West Bengal DGP, in a letter on Monday, told the CBI that its notices were sent to Kumar's official residence and his response was awaited, the sources said.

In the letter, the DGP had said Kumar had intimated him through his lawyer that he was on leave till September 25.

The letter had also said Kumar was exploring the legal remedies available to him.

The Saradha group of companies had allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore promising higher rates of return on their investments.

Kumar was part of a special investigation team (SIT) set up by the West Bengal government to investigate the scam before the Supreme Court handed over the case to the CBI in 2014, along with other chit fund cases.