Cal HC grants anticipatory bail to Rajeev Kumar

Kolkata

Kolkata

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The Calcutta high court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, who is suspected of withholding and tampering with the evidence to shield influential people in the case related to the Saradha Group financial scandal.

The order, which came after a hearing behind closed doors that began on September 25, was seen as a setback to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The bench of justices Sahidullah Munshi and Subhasis Dasgupta ruled that there was no need for custodial interrogation of Kumar, but the officer has to appear for questioning whenever the CBI summons him.The court also said that the agency has to issue a notice 48 hours prior to the summons.

One of five lawyers representing Kumar, who asked not to be named since the proceedings were in-camera, said that if the former police commissioner was arrested in the Saradha case, he has to be released on bail by an appropriate court on two sureties of Rs 50,000 each. Kumar is now posted as the additional director general of the Criminal Investigation Department of West Bengal Police.

Saradha Group collapsed in 2013, leaving in the lurch thousands of investors, who had put their life savings in illegal collective investment schemes operated by the group. The CBI has accused Kumar of withholding and tampering with evidence to protect influential persons who benefitted from the ponzi scam. Some of the items that a special investigation team (SIT) headed by Kumar, which probed the scam, allegedly withheld from the CBI were diaries and a pen drive containing details of payoffs made by Saradha group to political leaders and other influential people. CBI took over the investigation in 2014.

“The decision to grant bail is surprising. It is triggering questions among the public. CBI will surely appeal in the apex court,” remarked Bharatiya Janata Party national secretary Rahul Sinha please check these two quotes. obviously they would say this because of political biases.

“CBI had asked Rajeev Kumar to cooperate with the investigation. If the court grants anticipatory bail, it has to be accepted,” said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.

Left legislator Sujan Chakraborty questioned the failure of the investigative agency to track down Kumar, who had been untraceable since September 13.

CBI lawyers had pointed out in court that Kumar appeared for questioning only twice though he was summoned eight times in the past. They had also argued in the lower court that although he was questioned for about 40 hours over five days in Shillong between February 9 and 13, he ducked many questions, and there was a need to take him into custody.

The petition in the high court was the third application for anticipatory bail by Kumar. On September 17, he applied for bail at the district court in North 24 Parganas district that said it did not have jurisdiction over the matter. On September 19, the Judges Court at Alipore rejected Rajeev Kumar’s bail plea.

During the same time, CBI moved two petitions for a non-bailable arrest warrant against Kumar. While a special court for MLAs and MPs in North 24 Parganas district said it did not have jurisdiction, the additional chief judicial magistrate at Alipore ruled that the agency could arrest the Indian Police Service officer without a warrant.

Kumar has continued to remain untraceable since September 13, when a Calcutta high court order removed the protective shield around him in the Saradha ponzi scam investigation, exposing him to arrest by the CBI if the agency wanted to detain him.

CBI officers launched a manhunt for Kumar at various places including his residence in Kolkata’s Park Street and office in Alipore, apart from several other places in the city and neighbouring districts of South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Howrah and East Midnapore.

Kumar headed the SIT that was set up on April 26, 2013, and investigated the Saradha scam until CBI took over the case in 2014 following a Supreme Court order that mandated the agency to also probe the role of influential people and a larger design behind the scam.

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