Chit fund cases: CBI summons Kolkata CP Rajeev Kumar, again

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) wants to question Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with multi crore Saradha scam that rocked the country five years ago. The central investigating agency had already written to the Director General of Police Virendra asking for the nod to question the CP as well as few other officials regarding the case.

The CBI also said that they haven’t received a response from the DG as yet and was waiting for that to go ahead in the investigation.

According to a report in Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika, the West Bengal DGP had sent the central agency an email stating that the state had formed a Special Investigating Team (SIT) soon after the controversy came to light. On 26 April 2018, the then home secretary Basudeb had declared the formation of SIT through a notice.

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The SIT was tasked with the duty of unearthing several ponzi schemes that were operating then from different parts of the state. It was decided to collate all the cases together and start the investigation. The SIT comprised 10 more IPS officers from the state. Current Kolkata CP Rajeev Kumar, who was then the commissioner of Bidhannagar, was also in the SIT along with few notable officers that included Vineet Goyal, Tamal Basu and Pallab Kanti Ghosh.

The CBI apparently has stumbled on several points as the investigation was being done by the SIT and that’s why the central agency needs to talk to the officers to make progress in the multi-crore chit fund cases including the Saradha scam.

It may be recalled that Kumar had been summoned twice earlier for questioning which he evaded furnishing various reasons which led the CBI move to Supreme Court alleging non-cooperation from the IPS officer in question. According to the Bengali daily, additional commissioner Ghosh has said that there has been no intimation from the CBI regarding the matter.

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