Kolkata police chief grilled for over 7 hours, to face more questions today

SHILLONG: Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar faced seven and-a-quarter hours of “intense” interrogation in two rounds at CBI’s Shillong office on Saturday. Most of the questions focused on reconstructing events connected with the Saradha probe that started in April 2013, when he was Bidhannagar Police commissioner, and some “evidence and documents” that, according to CBI officials, had gone “missing”.

Things may get more complicated for Kumar on Sunday, when he will have to appear again at CBI’s Oakland office for questioning, as CBI has also summoned former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh — a vocal Kumar critic — to the same office at the same time.

Ghosh was arrested in 2013 by the Bengal government’s Special Investigation Team. He shot off a 91-page “tell-all” letter to CBI in June 2014, a few months after his arrest, questioning the state police and government’s role in the Saradha probe. The former MP arrived in Shillong on Saturday. “I have been asked by CBI to reach its Shillong office at 10 am on Sunday,” he said. Kumar will have to reach the CBI office by 10.30 am.

Officials said most of the questions to Kumar on Saturday revolved around the events that occurred in April 2013 and his role as the Bidhannagar Police commissioner. Bidhannagar Police had registered its first FIR against Saradha Group mastermind Sudipta Sen and others on April 16, 2013, and the Bengal government formed an SIT to probe the scam on April 26. A part of CBI’s questions also revolved around the events of a few days before that; Sen slipped out of Kolkata more than a week before April 13 after writing a letter to CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch that named political bigwigs with whom he used to deal.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Kumar to face the CBI at “a neutral venue” but restrained the central agency from taking any coercive action, including arresting him. The SC order followed a dramatic CBI “special operation” at the KP commissioner’s official Loudon Street residence last Sunday, which prompted Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to launch a dharna at Esplanade (the dharna was called off after the SC order).

“The KP commissioner is likely to be questioned further and so we would not like to comment on our questions,” an official said.

The first CBI team of six officers led by deputy superintendent Tathagata Bardhan (who was part of the team that went to Kumar’s residence last Sunday) started the questioning on Saturday morning. The focus was on the evidence and documents that had allegedly gone missing. The CBI, in its affidavit to the SC, alleged that some crucial “original, primary and fundamental evidence” was handed over to “the primary accused person” (Sen). These, officials said, included laptops, mobile phones and other evidence.

Kumar’s statement will now be cross-checked with that of Sen’s aide Debjani Mukherjee’s statement to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.

CBI officers Jagrup S Gusinha and Partha Mukherjee, who filed the affidavit in the SC, were part of the first team of interrogators. A second team joined the questioning around 5.30pm and Saturday’s interrogation continued till after at 7.15pm.

Kumar’s legal counsel, former Mizoram advocate-general and currently “Trinamool Congress observer” Biswajit Deb, asked the CBI on the modalities of the interrogation before the day’s session started. Kumar wanted the entire questioning to be video-recorded, he said, and the CBI acceded to this request.

KP additional commissioner (I) Jawed Shamim, KP Special Task Force deputy commissioner Murlidhar Sharma and Deb accompanied Kumar when he stepped into the CBI office after 10.45am. Both Shamim and Sharma left the CBI office around noon and Deb, too, left after some time. An STF team, led by a senior inspector, however, kept watch from outside.

“The police commissioner has cooperated with the CBI for nearly eight hours. He has been asked to come again,” Deb said before the team left the CBI office in the evening