Kolkata Court Rejects Rajeev Kumar’s Anticipatory Bail Plea

The CBI had, on Thursday, moved the court seeking an arrest warrant against Kumar.

The CBI had on 19 September moved the court seeking an arrest warrant against Rajeev Kumar.

(Photo: Shruti Mathur/The Quint)

Kolkata’s Alipore Court on Saturday, 21 September, rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, ANI reported.

Kumar had appealed for anticipatory bail at the court on Friday. The same was conveyed to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by his lawyers.

Meanwhile, CBI sleuths kept up their efforts on Saturday to locate Kumar. The CBI has been searching for former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar after he failed to turn up at the city's CBI office in connection with the probe into Saradha Scam on Friday.

CBI Search for Kumar Underway

Officials are searching his Park Street house, the Ibiza resort in Kolkata and Bishnupur in North 24 Parganas.

The agency, on Thursday, had issued a fresh notice, asking him to appear before it at 11 am in connection with the probe into Saradha chit fund scam, sources said, according to PTI.

Earlier in the week, too, Kumar had defied the CBI summons to appear before its investigating team at the CGO complex office in Salt Lake.

CBI teams also visited the IPS Officers' Mess at Alipore and a five-star hotel on EM Bypass among other locations "enquiring" about Kumar during the day.

No Arrest Warrant Required for Kumar

A city court, however has said that the CBI does not need its arrest warrant against Kumar, as the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court had already lifted bar on his arrest in the Saradha chit fund case.

Disposing of the CBI prayer for a warrant against Kumar, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM), Alipore, Subrata Mukherjee said that the top court and the high court had vacated protection from arrest to Kumar, which was granted earlier.

The ACJM said that the CBI may proceed against Kumar, who is currently the additional director general of West Bengal CID, in accordance with the law.

The agency also dashed off another letter to the state Director General of Police, seeking Kumar's phone number on which he could be contacted, an agency official told PTI.

Kumar Evades CBI Summons

Kumar, who is alleged to have suppressed crucial evidences required for preparing the final CBI charge sheet in the scam, has been evading the probe agency's summons to appear before it and his whereabouts are not known.

The Kolkata High Court, last Friday, withdrew the protection given to Kumar from arrest.

The CBI told the Alipore court that the senior IPS officer has failed to appear before it for assisting in the chit fund scam probe despite notices being sent to him on multiple occasions.

Kumar is not cooperating with it in the probe, the CBI lawyers said in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Subrata Mukherjee.

Lawyers representing Kumar, who is currently the additional director general of West Bengal CID, told the court that he is a witness and not an accused and as such the court cannot issue an arrest warrant against him in the case.

Denying the charge that he was not cooperating with the probe, his lawyers claimed that Kumar is not absconding and had informed the CBI that he would not be available from 1 to 25 September.

The Saradha chit fund case was registered at the Alipore court in South 24 Parganas district.

(With inputs from PTI)