No relief for Kolkata ex-top cop in court

Former Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar on Tuesday failed to get relief from a district and sessions court in West Bengal’s Barasat on his anticipatory bail application in the Saradha chit fund case, hours after a special court refused to hear his plea.

Kumar was served a fresh notice by the Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) to appear before it for assisting in the probe in the case after the Calcutta High Court on September 13 vacated its interim order granting him protection from arrest in the chit-fund case. But the IPS officer did not show up. Sessions judge S Rashidi disposed of Kumar’s anticipatory bail plea and said it has no jurisdiction in the matter as the multi-crore case was registered at Alipore district court.

While the Barasat court is in North 24 Parganas district, the Alipore court is in adjacent South 24-Parganas.

Kumar’s lawyers moved the prayer before the sessions judge after a special court in the district, incharge of trial of criminal cases against MPs and MLAs, refused to hear the petition , saying it does not have jurisdiction to hear anticipatory bail pleas. It also said Kumar could move the court of Barasat district sessions judge with his application.

CBI has formed special teams to locate Rajeev Kumar as he is repeatedly avoiding agency summons, according to two officials aware of the developments.

The special teams will look for Kumar within the state of West Bengal, where the officials cited above believe he is currently hiding. “The decision to form special teams in West Bengal has been taken after Kumar didn’t respond to three CBI summons in last four days. We had also written to the state DGP asking him to convey to Kumar that he needs to appear for CBI on Monday. The state DGP informed us that he is on leave till September 25. Then his lawyer was informed and Kumar was asked to appear today at 10 am. But again he didn’t turn up. He is evading the probe and there is a risk that he may go underground for a long time,” said one of the officials.

First Published:
Sep 18, 2019 02:57 IST