Saradha ponzi scam: CBI seeks to interrogate ex-top cop Rajeev Kumar, others

KOLKATA: The CBI, probing the Saradha ponzi scam, has sought interrogation of police officers including former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar. The agency, which has submitted a prayer with the Supreme Court following the apex court’s direction for the same, has also sought permission for custodial interrogation of the officers if necessary. Kumar is likely to reply soon to the “status report” already filed by the CBI.

In a prayer submitted with the Supreme Court on Friday the agency alleged that they need to investigate “the acts of commission and omission on the part of Bidhan Nagar Police Commissionerate and the SIT” which have led to “concealment or disappearance of evidence”. While it is investigating into the larger conspiracy aspect of the probe, the agency sought permission “to examine Rajeev Kumar and other police officers”. It has also sought the court to recall the interim protection granted to Kumar for no coercive step including arrest.

Earlier last month a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, which found the CBI’s findings to be “serious”, asked the agency to file their affidavit against Kumar in 10 days. In the affidavit the CBI cited the purported letter (April, 2013) of Sudipta Sen to the CBI in which he had named several influential persons in the state. It alleged that although Sen had named many “influential persons having nexus with the alleged deals”, the state SIT and Bidhannagar police had only arrested and chargesheeted Kunal Ghosh and a few employees of the company.

During his interrogation at Shillong, Kumar had told the CBI officials that he was not looking into the investigation on a day-to-day as some of the junior officials including Arnab Ghosh were investigating the case. He had claimed that some of the electronic evidence, which the agency was looking for, might have been returned under the court’s order. Earlier the investigating officer of the Saradha case had told the ACJM court Bidhan Nagar that he had no objection to return the personal property of Debjani Mukherjee apart from her passport. Following that, the court on February, 2014 had directed for release of the seized electronic items. The agency has alleged that no forensic test of the electronic evidences was conducted by the investigating officer.