A spat between a team of the CBI and officials of Kolkata police blew up on Sunday evening. Following speculation that Kolkata police commissioner (CP) Rajeev Kumar is to be summoned by the CBI, a CBI team led by DSP Tathagatha Bardhan reached the CP's Loudon Street residence at around 6 pm. Later in the day, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would sit on a dharna to protest the incident.
However, a team of Kolkata police, led by deputy commissioner (south) Meraz Khalid and officer-in-charge of Shakespeare Sarani Police Station, stopped them at the entrance and said they should go to the police station.
The CBI officers maintained that they only wished to talk to Kumar, but they weren't allowed to enter. All officers were then forced inside police vehicles and were taken to the Shakespeare Sarani police station, where a CBI team had already reached.
Bardhan tried to stop the car, but he too was pushed into the vehicle. "CBI officials investigating a case have been forced out by Kolkata police," he told mediapersons before being taken away.
Sources said CBI officials would complain to the Union home ministry of an assault by Kolkata Police.
It was later found that four notices had been issued to Kumar, asking him to appear at the CGO Complex for questioning in connection with the probe into the Saradha scam. It was alleged that a special investigation team (SIT), led by Kumar, had been formed to probe the scam, and a diary and some pen drives had been seized from the Saradha Group's office which later went missing.
Following the fracas, Banerjee said she would start a sit-in demonstration. "In order to save the Constitution and the federal structure, I will start a dharna from now at Metro Channel. It will be a satyagraha like that by Mahatma Gandhi. I am sorry to say that the governor houses have turned into party offices," Banerjee said.
She alleged that CBI's actions are being taken on the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the elections. "Did you hear the Prime Minister's language yesterday? He has given a threat. The step had started since we put up a rally on January 19. CBI officials had been summoned by PM Modi and were asked to take steps," she added.
She also blamed former TMC second-in-command Mukul Roy, who had defected to the BJP. "All these have been done because of a gaddar (traitor) and 'Gabbar dacoit from Chambal'. I am proud of my force and it is my duty to give it protection," she added.
BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, however, said the CBI was working as per the Supreme Court's orders initiated before 2014. "It is unfortunate how CBI officials had been manhandled. We condemn the misrule of the Mamata government," he said.