india

Updated: Oct 03, 2019 18:56 IST

Former Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar who couldn’t be traced by the Central Bureau of Investigation for 20 days made an appearance in a Kolkata court on Thursday.

Kumar went to Alipore Court with his lawyers around 11 am and surrendered before the additional chief judicial magistrate Subrata Mukherjee to complete formalities for the bail granted on Tuesday by the Calcutta High Court. He refused to speak to the media.

“The procedure for his bail was completed today. He surrendered before the court and was granted bail. A judicial surety and a local surety of Rs 50,000 each were submitted,” said Gopal Haldar, Kumar’s advocate.

On October 1, a division bench of justices Sahidullah Munshi and Subhasis Dasgupta granted anticipatory bail to Rajeev Kumar in the Saradha ponzi scam investigation being conducted by CBI.

Kumar led the state government’s Special Investigation Team that initially probed the scam until the Supreme Court handed over the investigation to CBI in 2014. The central probe agency alleged that Kumar destroyed and concealed crucial evidence while leading the SIT to protect influential persons.

Between September 13 and October 1, till the bail was granted, CBI officers looked for Kumar at multiple locations including his residence on Park Street, office at Alipore at various hotels, resorts and buildings in Kolkata and the neighbouring districts of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore.

At present the additional director general of CID, the 1989-batch IPS officer was on leave from September 1 to September 25. However, he did not join office on September 26. He did not attend office on Thursday either.

“He is expected to join office on October 15, after the holidays are over,” said a CID officer who refused to be identified.

Kumar is considered close to chief minister Mamata Banerjee. To protest a CBI team’s efforts to raid Kumar’s residence, Banerjee launched a two-day sit-in demonstration at the heart of Kolkata in February this year.