The CBI officials interrogated Kumar for nearly five hours.Former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar on Friday appeared before the CBI in the multi-crore Saradha ponzi scam case. This was for the first time that he appeared before the CBI at CGO complex, CBI headquarters, in Kolkata. The CBI officials interrogated Kumar for nearly five hours.
Following Supreme Court’s order, Kumar was earlier grilled by a special team of CBI at a “neutral place” in Shillong.
Kumar deposed before the CBI after the Calcutta High Court granted him a month-long protection from arrest, following which he is safe from any “coercive action” till July 10. The court had also asked him to cooperate with the CBI investigation.
According to the court’s direction, except in case of medical necessities, Kumar will not be able to stay anywhere other than his official residence in Kolkata. It added that a CBI representative would come to his residence every day to record his presence.
Sources in the agency said CBI officials didn’t cross-question Kumar on Friday and his statements were videographed.
Kumar appeared before the CBI just days after four trunks full of documents related to Saradha scam were submitted at CGO complex. The Bengal Police claimed that those are the documents seized by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) during the initial days of investigation.
Kumar had claimed in Siliguri that he was not involved in the day-to-day development of the case as he had a lot of other responsibilities as the Commissioner of Bidhannagar area, sources in CBI said. However, most of the officers, who were part of the SIT, told the CBI that they were following instructions of Kumar and another official, Arnab Ghosh. Special Superintendent of the CID, Ghosh, was one of the members of the SIT that initially probed the scam.
