Kolkata Police chief Rajeev Kumar grilled by CBI for 8 hours, second round of questioning tomorrow

KOLKATA: Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar was grilled for almost eight hours by the CBI sleuths on Saturday at the agency's Shillong office in connection with the Rose Valley and the Saradha chit fund scam.

Sources in the CBI revealed that he has been asked to appear before the agency for questioning again on Sunday to get more details on the investigation that was carried out by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Kumar.

Kumar was questioned by the special team of 10 officers constituted by the CBI. Sources in the agency revealed that a 22-page questionnaire was prepared by the agency to question him.

In line with the Supreme Court order, Kumar was asked to appear before the CBI at Shillong – a mutually accepted location by both Kumar and the CBI.

This apart, ex-TMC MP Kunal Ghosh will also be questioned by the CBI officers in Shillong on Sunday in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam. 

"Ghosh has on several occasions claimed that Kumar had tried to influence the investigation. We may make Ghosh and Kumar sit face to face for questioning tomorrow," said a CBI officer on the condition of anonymity. 

The Kolkata Police Commissioner arrived in the capital city of Meghalaya on Friday along with his lawyer Biswajit Deb and two other IPS officers – deputy commissioner of Kolkata Police (Special Task Force) Murlidhar Sharma and Additional and Joint Commissioner of Kolkata Police (HQ) Jawed Shamim.

He stayed at a heritage hotel in Shillong – Tripura Castle and reached the Shillong CBI located at Oakland at 11 AM and left the office at 7.15 PM.

On the other hand, a team of CBI officials started arriving Shillong from Friday onwards. Team led by a DIG rank officer, Vivek Dutt, several SP, additional SP and Deputy SP rank officers questioned Kumar.

CBI had issued an order dated February 6, 2019, asking 10 officers to join the Kolkata unit with immediate effect and be prepared to stay with the team till February 20, 2019.

The Supreme Court had on Tuesday directed Kumar to appear before the CBI in Shillong in connection with the two scams. However, the court had also said that the CBI cannot arrest Kumar.

CBI had alleged in the apex court that Kumar had tried to tamper the evidence while investigating the case when he was heading the SIT.

A political slugfest began on Sunday after the CBI officers had reached Kumar’s residence in Kolkata on Sunday. CBI had claimed that they were prevented from meeting the commissioner and forcibly taken to the Shakespeare Sarani police station by Kolkata Police and detained later.

However, Kolkata Police ruled out the allegations of detaining the CBI officers.

"This is unprecedented. We have never faced a situation of this sort before. We were prevented from doing our job," CBI DSP Tathagata Vardhan had said on Sunday outside the police station. 

West Bengal Chief Minister had immediately reached Kumar’s residence and announced that she will stage a ‘Satyagraha’ on the metro channel. 

The ‘Satyagraha’ was staged for almost 40 hours before she finally decided to call it off after Supreme Court had passed its orders preventing the CBI from arresting Kumar.