CBI questions senior IPS officer in Odisha chit fund scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday interrogated senior IPS officer Rajesh Kumar in connection with a chit fund scam in Odisha. 

Kumar is the first state police official to be quizzed by the premier investigating agency in connection with the multi-crore scam. Kumar is currently serving as the deputy inspector general (DIG) in charge of the north central range. 

A few days ago, the CBI had arrested one Subhankar Nayak for his alleged links with Seashore group, a tainted chit fund company currently under the scanner of the probe agency. He was working as a broker of the chit fund company.  During the raid on his Bhubaneswar apartment, the CBI sleuths had seized Rs 14 lakh in cash besides a diary. The senior IPS officer’s name had reportedly figured in the diary. 

Before his present posting, Kumar was serving as the DIG of the crime branch (CB) of the state police and was in charge of economic offence wing. During his tenure, the offices and other establishments of the Seashore group were raided by the crime branch which had also arrested the chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of the tainted company, Prasanta Dash. 

Sources said CBI sleuths questioned the senior IPS officer on his reported links with the Seashore group and its arrested CMD, Dash as well as broker Nayak. Kumar, however, did not divulge much when he came out of the CBI office here after his three-hour long interrogation.