Kolkata Police gets nod to raid ED office

KUMAR IS ACCUSED OF ACCEPTING BRIBES AND HELPING ROSE VALLEY CHIT FUND SCAM ACCUSED GAUTAM KUNDU AND WAS SUSPENDED ON FEB 1

In a first, the Kolkata Police will be conducting a search operation at a particular office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at CGO Complex in Salt Lake.

And, all the ED can do is blame Manoj Kumar, the former assistant director the agency suspended on February 1 after he was caught on camera with Subhra Kundu, wife of the Gautam Kundu, chairman of Rose Valley and prime accused in the ₹17,000 crore chit fund scam the company is allegedly involved in.

On Monday, a Kolkata court passed an order allowing the Kolkata Police to search the ED office here Kumar used to work. The court also allowed the city police to raid another office that he had occupied for some time. The city police summoned Kumar thrice for questioning and thereafter moved court since he did not respond.

Monday’s development is likely to have a political impact because after Kumar’s suspension Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “I have heard that he (Kumar) is an efficient officer and recovered ₹850 crore illegally collected by the chit fund. Whether he took someone to some place or it was he who was being taken… whether it was a honey trap et al can be determined only after the investigation is over...”

Kumar was suspended by ED after CCTV footage, showing him and Subhra at the Kolkata airport and a hotel in Delhi, went viral. It was found in a computer that was seized by the Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata Police from a Rose Valley office in the city in December.

Amid speculations of actor Rakhi Sawant’s arrest in Mumbai, Ludhiana Commissioner of Police Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh said that the police have not arrested her, although a team from Salem Tabri station was sent to Mumbai for the arrest.

The team did not find Rakhi Sawant at her official address following which they returned to Ludhiana, he added.

Advocate Narinder Adiya, who filed the complaint, slammed Ludhiana police for their apathetic approach.

Adiya said Rakhi Sawant is a celebrity and she could be traced easily if Ludhiana police had taken help from Mumbai Police. He said he will file another application in the court and will demand to initiate proceedings to declare the actor a proclaimed offender if she did not appear before the court on April 10, the next date of hearing of the case.