Former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar

KOLKATA: Former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar “ignored” Friday’s CBI notice asking him to present himself on Saturday before officials probing the multi-crore Saradha ponzi scam case. Instead, he sent an email to the CBI, seeking a month’s time to appear before them.

Kumar, who is on leave from September 9 to 25, cited “personal reasons” for seeking time. “He has said that he needs time to tend to his wife, a senior IRS officer, who is unwell,” an official told TOI. Kumar is presently the West Bengal CID’s additional director-general.

CBI officials, however, indicated that giving a month’s time to Kumar was “highly unlikely”. “We are looking into all documents and the request for more time. But we have already given him enough time and extensions,” a senior CBI official said.

Police officials said Kumar was in Kolkata and reportedly spent Saturday seeking legal advice on whether to move a special leave petition in the Supreme Court on Monday or move the Calcutta High Court for anticipatory bail. Legal opinion, as of now, is inclined towards Kumar taking the apex court route.

The former top cop did not make any public appearance either on Friday or Saturday. Neither was there any response to text messages from TOI.

A posse of around 25 cops was posted outside the entrance of the Park Street Kolkata Police complex — housing the offices of the deputy commissioner (south) and two assistant commissioners as well as residential quarters of a few senior officials including Rajeev Kumar — throughout Saturday.

Officially, police maintained they were on “law-and-order duty”. “There are important offices inside the complex. The footpath, too, was crowded. We decided to ensure only bona fide people found entry,” an IPS officer told TOI. But some officers on duty on the ground admitted there was “a high degree of concern” because of rumours that the CBI would come to arrest their former boss.

Besides this off-and-on activity on the ground, both camps (CBI and Rajeev Kumar) spent most of Saturday consulting their legal teams. “The best possible recourse available to Kumar is to move an SLP in the Supreme Court; he can also urge the apex court for an early hearing and seek some protection from arrest till the case is disposed of,” a senior lawyer said.

The other option — filing for anticipatory bail in Calcutta HC — might be “more complicated”, he added. “The initial summons issued to Kumar were in the Saradha case. But, in a tactical shift, the CBI is now also probing the Rose Valley case and this means it will come under the jurisdiction of a Bhubaneswar court. How many specific courts will Kumar’s team move if the CBI tomorrow issues summons in a third case?” the senior lawyer asked.

Kumar’s concern may stem from this because he has also got summons for the Rose Valley probe. Three charge sheets have already been filed in the Rose Valley FIR lodged before a special CBI judge in Bhubaneshwar and the CBI has also informed the Bhubaneshwar court that it will be filing supplementary charge sheets.

“Kumar has already been represented by a battery of top lawyers — Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Kapil Sibal and Indira Jaisingh — in the apex court and may find it easier to move it,” another senior counsel explained.



In Video: Saradha scam: Ex-Kolkata top cop Rajeev Kumar ignores CBI summons