Rajeev Kumar seeks extension of interim protection

West Bengal cadre IPS officer Rajeev Kumar on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking an extension of the seven-day interim protection granted to him until the lawyers withdrew their strike in the state.

The CBI had sought to arrest him for alleged tampering of evidence by providing incomplete call records and other materials in the Saradha chit fund scam probe.

Advocate Astha Sharma mentioned the fresh application before a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna seeking more time to explore legal remedies in view of strike by lawyers in the state.

The court, however, told her since the judgement, withdrawing protection, against him was passed by a three-judge bench, she should move the Secretary-General with a plea for setting up such a bench.

On Friday, the top court withdrew its protection from arrest granted to West Bengal ADG Kumar on February 5, on a plea by the CBI.

The court, however, said the interim protection would continue for seven days to enable Kumar to exhaust all his legal remedies.

In his fresh application, Kumar said his protection should be extended till the strike in the state did not get called off.

The court had on Friday expressed its “disappointment and dismay” and called the situation as grim since the CBI and the West Bengal police were pitted against each other and embroiled in a feud in the ongoing probe into the multi-thousand crore Saradha chit fund scam case.

The top court said both the CBI and WB police have forgotten that the primary purpose and role of the police is to investigate crime, collect evidence and prosecute the offenders.

“Both sides have hardened their stand and there is no administrative mechanism in place to avoid and resolve such conflicts between the two wings of the police force in the country. At the receiving end are lakhs of investors who have been deprived and looted of their savings,” it said.

The judgement was delivered by a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Khanna.

“With regret, we acknowledge and accept that despite orders and words of advice, antagonism and acrimony has escalated and not ebbed,” the bench had said.

“We had attempted to resolve the controversy. This, however, has not worked out,” it said.

The CBI alleged that Kumar who headed the state SIT to probe the scam did not hand over entire call detail records including a diary seized from accused Debjani Mukherjee containing a record of day-to-day transactions, when the investigation was entrusted to it as per the apex court's order of May 09, 2014.

After Kumar, then Kolkata police commissioner, failed to respond to several notices, CBI sleuths reached his residence on February 3 but they faced stiff resistance from the state police. The issue subsequently snowballed into a big controversy with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lending her support to the 1989-batch officer. She also sat on a dharna.

The CBI approached the top court, which directed Kumar to “fully cooperate” and appear before it at a neutral place in Shillong for interrogation. But the central probe agency was restrained from arresting him.

Notably, Kumar was on Wednesday removed by the Election Commission following the arson and violent clashes during BJP president Amit Shah's roadshow a day before. He was attached with the Union Home Ministry.