india

Updated: Feb 20, 2019 11:51 IST

Supreme Court judge, Justice L Nageswara Rao, on Wednesday recused himself from hearing a contempt plea by CBI against three Bengal officials alleging obstruction in its probe into the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.

Justice Rao said he had appeared for Bengal as a lawyer and therefore cannot hear the case. The Supreme Court has now posted the matter for hearing on February 27.

The court had issued the contempt notices against West Bengal Chief secretary Malay Kumar De, DGP Virendera Kumar and then Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar on the CBI’s allegations that electronic evidence was tampered with in the Saradha chit fund case.

The three officers have refuted the CBI’s allegations in their affidavits. The tendered “unconditional apology” to the court but said that the Bengal government and the state police never denied cooperation to CBI or obstructed probe.

The Bengal police has said that the CBI forcefully tried to enter the then Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar’s residence on February 3 without valid papers.

The Supreme Court had Tuesday decided not to pass any order directing personal presence of the chief secretary, DGP and Rajeev Kumar.

Rajeev Kumar was on Monday shifted as Additional Director General of Police (ADG) and Inspector General of Police (IGP), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), West Bengal.