india

Updated: Feb 27, 2019 23:59 IST

The Supreme Court said on Wednesday if the Central Bureau of Investigation’s allegations against former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar on tampering of call data records in the Saradha chit fund case were true, it was a “serious” issue and a “contemptuous” act.

The judges, however, questioned the CBI’s silence for over six months on the alleged tampering of records and said the agency should have come to the court earlier. “This amounts to subversion of rule of law,” said a bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising justice Sanjiv Khanna. The court said the CBI must affirm the allegations and ordered the director to file a sworn affidavit. It fixed March 26 as the next date of hearing as it refused to acknowledge attorney general KK Venugopal and solicitor general Tushar Mehta’s oral submissions. Both law officers appeared for the CBI.

According to the CBI, the call data records containing details of alleged calls made by several accused persons to “important people” were with the West Bengal police before the CBI took over on the top court’s orders.

Venugopal explained to the court that there was a delay in getting verification of the CDRs as various service providers were not parting with the information and did so only after the approval of ministry of home affairs.

The CJI’s bench was hearing the CBI’s contempt petition against Kumar, the state DGP and chief secretary. The CBI had rushed to the top court after an unprecedented turn of events took place in Kolkata on February 3 when the agency officials were arrested by the police after they reached Kumar’s house to question him in connection with the chit fund scam.