West Bengal top cop Rajeev Kumar to appear before CBI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar to appear and make himself available at all times before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and co-operate faithfully with the probe into the Saradha scam.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjeev Khanna, while giving this direction, however, restrained the CBI from taking coercive steps, including arrest of Mr Kumar.

To avoid controversy, the court asked the CBI to question Mr Kumar at a neutral place, viz Shillong in Meghalaya on such dates as may be fixed.

After hearing Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal, who maintained that a contempt has been committed by preventing CBI officers from exercising their duties, the bench issued contempt notices to the state chief secretary, DGP and the police commissioner seeking their response by February 18.

The bench made it clear that on consideration of their replies, the court may require the personal presence of the three officers on February 20 and the secretary general of this court would intimate this to them on February 19.

Earlier, Mr Venugopal submitted that the state police was not co-operating with the probe. Citing instances, he said the material handed over to the CBI was not the entire material.

“We had serious doubts over the documents which were handed over to us. Call data, which was given to us, was incomplete. There is a serious breakdown of legal machinery and law and order in West Bengal.”

Describing the order as a “slap on the face” of the Mamata Banerjee-led government, top functionaries in the Central government said it is quite apparent that the court has taken a dim view of the Kolkata police commissioner and the entire top bureaucracy of the Mamata government.

Emphasising that the conduct of the Trinamul government’s senior officers is being watched, the functionaries, citing the order, said the apex court has asked the Kolkata police chief “to faithfully cooperate with the investigating agency at all times”.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad welcomed the order and said it’s a blow to the Mamata Banerjee government and a victory for the CBI. It also showed that nobody is above the law, including the police commissioner, he added.

Lakhs of depositors in several eastern states including West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand were duped by the promoters of Saradha and Rose Valley groups of their hard earned money. The size of the Saradha swindle is pegged at roughly '4,000 crore and that of Rose Valley a staggering '15,000 crore.

Ms Banerjee’s dharna brought back memories of the 26-day hunger strike she undertook 13 years ago against “forcible” land acquisition in Singur by the then Left Front government for Tata Motors’ Nano car plant.

Her 46-hour dharna underscored how crucial she is for the Opposition’s efforts to forge a broad-based alliance to take on the Modi dispensation.

The AG along with Solicitor-General Tu-shar Mehta asked the court, “Can state police confront the Centre’s police which is acting pursuant to the orders of this court? Your Lordships have to issue notice for contempt and also lay down the law in this regard. The conduct of Mr Kumar and WB amounted to contempt of the SC judgment.”

The AG explained that between April, 2014 and when the judgment was pronounced in 2017, we have collected material and proceeded to make arrests...some of them were people found close to or connected to the TMC, the ruling party...we issued summons to Mr Kumar (being the functional head of the SIT) as the material handed to us was not complete. So we sent summons and then three notices. When he failed to respond, we wrote to the DGP...”

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for West Bengal government refuted the submissions, saying that the whole episode was done with the object of harassment and humiliation.