SC withdraws interim protection to former police chief Rajeev Kumar
New Delhi,: The Supreme Court on Friday withdrew the interim protection to former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar from being arrested by CBI in the multi-crore chit fund scam cases.
A bench, headed by Justice Indira Banerjee, passed the order after hearing Kumar and other respective parties in the case.
“We vacated the interim stay of arrest to former top cop Rajeev Kumar in the case. He needs to take legal recourse in seven days,” Justice Banerjee said.
The CBI accused Kumar of tampering with chit fund scam evidence to shield powerful politicians.
Kumar was heading the Special Investigation Team that was probing the Saradha Chit fund Scam and the Rose Valley Ponzi Scam. He was summoned for questioning by the CBI on several occasions after some documents relating to the scams went missing.
A team of CBI officers landed at Kumar’s doorstep on February 3 to question him but was stopped by the Kolkata Police from entering Kumar’s bungalow, and detained them at a Police Station.
The CBI then approached the Apex Court who asked Kumar to make himself available to the CBI and co-operate with the probe. The Court had, however, ordered the CBI not to take any coercive steps against Kumar thereby granting him protection from arrest.
Claiming that there was tampering of evidence in the case in which Kumar was involved, the Centre received an order from the Court directing telecom companies to provide the relevant Call Data Records. Later, the CBI also sought court’s permission for custodial interrogation of Kumar.
UNI.