Calcutta HC refuses immediate hearing to WB govt's plea against CBI

The decision was taken by Justice Shivakant Prasad following an objection by the Centre.

The matter will be taken up on Tuesday.

State Advocate General Kishore Dutta in his petition told the court that despite the High Court's stay on actions regarding notice to state police officials, CBI officials attempted to enter Kumar's residence on Sunday for probing him.

Dutta said that the matter was scheduled to be heard on Feb 13 and by entering Kumar's residence, the CBI violated the order.

Additional Solicitor General Kaushik Chanda, however, submitted in his plea that the stay was on a CBI notice to only Arnab Ghosh, the then deputy commissioner (detective department) of Bidhannagar Police, who initially probed the chit fund case.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court said it will hear tomorrow the CBI plea against the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal on non-cooperation with the federal agency to probe into the state's chit fun scams, which require the quizzing of Rajeev Kumar.

While Mamata Banerjee began an indefinite dharna against the CBI move, the Supreme Court has asked the probe agency to produce evidence proving Kumar's alleged attempt to tamper evidences in the chit fund scams.

Amid the high drama unfolding in Kolkata over West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's "sit-in protest" against the CBI's move to interrogate Rajeev Kumar, the central investigating agency on Monday moved the Supreme Court against the state government over its "non-cooperation".

CBI told IBNS that it has concrete evidence against Rajeev Kumar and hence he was summoned. Kumar did not speak to media yet on the controversy.

Things took a nasty turn on Sunday after CBI officials went to Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar's house to quiz him over his alleged involvement in chit fund scams and alleged destruction of evidence.

When the CBI officials reached Kumar's residence, they were whisked away by Kolkata police officers.

Reminding her days as an opposition leader, Mamata soon started a "sit-in-protest" at Metro channel in downtown Kolkata from Sunday night against the CBI's move. She has been continuing the protest since last evening now.

The Chief Minister alleged that the CBI is acting as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi's order.

Rajeev Kumar: Development so far

Rajeev Kumar, who was seen emerging after Mamata met him, was wanted for questioning in connection with investigations into several ponzi scams.

He did not speak to media.

He had headed the special investigation team investigating into the Saradha and Rose Valley scams. Kumar has been accused of tampering with evidence to save several influential people in the state.

CBI defended their action. "As we found concrete evidences against Rajeev Kumar, we had summoned him. As he did not respond to our notices, our officers went to his residence in south Kolkata today to quiz him with all valid documents and paper-works," CBI joint commissioner Pankaj Kumar Srivastava told IBNS after probe agency officials were whisked away from the gate of the residence of Rajeev Kumar and detained in a police station when they went to his residence to quiz him on the Rose Valley and Saradha chit fund scams.

"After being directed by the Supreme Court, we are probing the chit fund cases. For last two years, we have repeatedly been sending notices to Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, asking him to appear before our investigators for interrogation as he was the chief of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was constituted by the state government and it probed the matter in preliminary stage," said Srivastava.

"After starting investigation, we found that several evidences were destroyed or misplaced," he said.

"As he did not respond to our notices, our officers went to his residence in south Kolkata today to quiz him with all valid documents and paper-works. Unfortunately, without cooperating with our officers, police manhandled them and detained them. We will take adequate legal steps against the actions of Kolkata Police," he said.

Image Credit: Avishek Mitra/IBNS