Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has fixed July 2 for the hearing of former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar’s plea seeking quashing of a notice served on him by the CBI.
Justice Asha Arora scheduled Wednesday the hearing of the petition filed by Kumar, now the West Bengal CID Additional Director General (ADG), after the CBI lawyer raised the matter before the court. A vacation bench of the High Court had, May 30, granted protection from arrest and any coercive action to Kumar till July 10 in the Saradha chit fund case.
The court had granted the police officer a month’s protection from June 10, the day of reopening of the court after the summer break, and directed Kumar to deposit his passport within 24 hours of the passing of the order. He was also asked to cooperate with the CBI probe into the multi-crore-rupee chit fund case.
The court had also ordered the central probe agency to send a designated officer to Kumar’s residence every day at 4.00pm to record his attendance.
Kumar, who was appointed the Commissioner of Police at the Bidhan Nagar Police Commissionerate in 2012, had served as the head of the state-appointed special investigation team (SIT), which probed the chit fund scams before the CBI took over.
The central agency had, in April, told the Supreme Court that Kumar’s custodial interrogation was necessary as he was not cooperating in the probe and was ‘evasive’ and ‘arrogant’ in answering the queries put to him.
As part of the Rs 2,500-crore scam, the Saradha group of companies duped lakhs of customers, promising higher rates of returns on their investments, the CBI had said.
PTI