Former Kolkata top cop Rajeev Kumar's bail move hit due to lawyers' strike

Rajeev Kumar, who is accused of bailing out the Trinamool Congress in the Saradha chit fund scam, could not file an anticipatory bail plea in a special CBI court in Barasat on Saturday due to the lawyers' cease-work, sources told The Times of India.

Rajeev Kumar has seven days to seek protection from arrest by the CBI in the Saradha case, media reports said.

This comes after the Supreme Court on Friday said Kumar's protection from arrest would be withdrawn after seven days.

“The CBI may act in accordance with the law after seven days,” reports quoted a bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjiv Khanna as saying. However, Kumar is free to appeal for further protection against arrest.

On February 3, a face-off between the Kolkata Police and CBI began after the central investigation agency officers went to Rajeev Kumar's bungalow in south Kolkata's Loudon Street after the CP skipped three previous summons. Local police personnel manhandled the CBI investigators and forcibly detained them.

Following the incident, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee sat on a two-day dharna (sit-in-demonstration) to defend the top cop and protest the CBI action. Several Opposition leaders at the national level extended their support to Mamata.

Later, the CBI went to the Supreme Court to get order to interrogate Rajeev Kumar and the apex court had directed the Kolkata commissioner to cooperate with the CBI and to appear before it in Shillong, considered a neutral venue.

A three-justice bench of the Supreme Court also directed the CBI that it could not arrest Rajeev Kumar immediately.