New Delhi: The Supreme Court asked Tuesday the CBI to furnish evidence for seeking custodial interrogation of former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, who was earlier heading the West Bengal Police special investigation team (SIT) probing the Saradha chit fund scam case.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, to satisfy it that its request for seeking custodial interrogation of Kumar was bonafide and was in interest of justice.
The bench also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna asked Mehta to bring evidence to satisfy it that Kumar was even remotely involved in destruction or disappearance of evidence in the chit fund case.
Mehta told the court that he will file the evidence against Kumar by Wednesday after which the bench listed the matter for further hearing on the same day.
The court was hearing CBI’s application in which the agency, which was asked by the apex court to investigate the case, was seeking custodial interrogation of Kumar on grounds that he had given evasive replies during questioning.
It should be stated here that the CBI had grilled Kumar for 40 hours spread over five days in Shillong earlier in February. Kumar claimed that he had given ‘satisfactory’ answers to all that asked from him. However, the CBI later claimed that Kumar had been evasive in his replies and hence it had sought permission from the apex court to carry out custodial interrogation of the former Kolkata top cop.