Shillong: CBI officials today grilled Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, accused for his alleged role in destroying evidence related to the Saradha chit fund scam, at their office in Shillong for the second consecutive day. Today’s activities were in addition to the eight hours of CBI questionong he faced yesterday.
The investigative agency also confronted former Trinamool parliamentarian Kunal Ghosh who has been asked to appear soon at the CBI office for questioning in person in connection with the case. Three senior CBI officers questioned Kumar today for hours about his alleged role in the tampering of crucial evidence in the scam. The CBI has not released details of the interrogation yet.
The police official’s counsel, however, said that he is cooperating and complying with the CBI. “He has come here on the orders of the Supreme Court. He has complied earlier and he is complying now as per the orders,” Kumar’s counsel Biswajit Deb, who is also the Trinamool Congress coordinator for Meghalaya, said.
CBI is relying on a 91-page letter from Ghosh, who was expelled by Trinamool, to the Enforcement Directorate, detailing the role of Rajeev Kumar in handling the investigations in the chit fund scam.
Kumar began investigations after the main accused, Sudipta Sen and Debjani Mukherjee, both promoters of Saradha Group of companies, had fled to Kashmir, officials said in Kolkata. They were arrested in 2013 from Kashmir. Ghosh has named BJP leader Mukul Roy, who was once the most trusted man of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and 12 others in the Saradha scam.
The Supreme Court had fixed Shillong as the venue for his interrogation, saying that its neutral status will prevent unnecessary controversy. Accompanied by three high-ranking officers of the Kolkata Police, Kumar has been lodged at a top hotel in the city. A CBI team from Delhi arrived in Shillong to question him.
A major controversy had broken out last week, when a team of CBI officers went to Mr Kumar’s residence to question him but faced stiff resistance from the Kolkata police.
Following this, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee staged a three-day protest to save the Constitution. The central investigating agency had said it wanted to question Rajeev Kumar to plug the holes in the Saradha investigation case as he was supposed to be in possession of certain key documents as a member of the special investigation team.