CBI free to arrest ex-Kolkata top cop, says court

KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday moved an application in West Bengal’s Alipore court seeking a non-bailable arrest warrant against former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, whom it has accused of tampering with evidence in the Saradha chit fund case probe.

CBI argued Kumar needs to be arrested because he has gone missing. The agency even cited an old court order that granted a similar warrant against underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts who is now believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

Kumar, accused of suppressing crucial evidences required for preparing the final CBI charge sheet in the case, has failed to appear before the agency since the Kolkata high court withdrew the protection given to him from arrest last Friday.

Subrata Mukherjee, additional chief judicial magistrate of Alipore court in Kolkata, said the CBI had the right to arrest Kumar even without a warrant, and observed that the agency can approach the court if it faces any adverse situation while making the arrest.

The court reserved its order on the application for the arrest warrant after submissions by the lawyers of the CBI and Kumar, who is currently the additional director general of West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department.

The CBI officers also delivered a summons to his official residence at Park Street in south Kolkata, asking him to appear for interrogation.

Agency officials also visited an Indian Police Service (IPS) officers’ mess at Alipore as well as a hotel on Eastern Metropolitan Bypass “enquiring” about him during the day.

The CBI dashed off a letter to the state director general of police (DGP) seeking Kumar’s phone number on which he could be contacted, an agency official said.

Kumar, an IPS officer of 1989 batch, was heading a special investigation team (SIT) that was set up by the Mamata Banerjee government in 2013 to investigate multi-crore Saradha chit fund case.

In 2014, the CBI took over the case following a Supreme Court order.