Issued notice to Kumar, Bengal police summoned CBI IO

The CBI has claimed that one of its investigating officer in the Rose Valley chit fund scam was summoned in a riot case by West Bengal Police as a "retaliatory measure" after it served a notice under CrPC to senior IPS officer Rajiv Kumar, who is now the centre of a tussle between the Centre and state government.

Official sources said Kumar, who is presently the Kolkata Police Commissioner, was summoned thrice by the CBI but he chose to ignore it. The first notice was sent on 18 October, 2017 while the second was issued five days later and the third came on December 18 last year.

Soon after the first notice was issued, sources said, the CBI Inspector Bratin Ghosal was summoned by the Ballygunge police station as a "retaliatory measure" in a case of rioting that took place at a hotel of Rose Valley group.

"Further, the Sub Inspector of Ballygunge police station started to issue summons to senior officers of the CBI, including Joint Director and Special Director," a senior official said.

On the first instance, Kumar cited law and order duties of the ensuing festive season while he responded negatively to the summons in other instances. The West Bengal Police had on the third occasion suggested that the CBI could send a questionnaire or they could arrange a joint meeting of CBI officials and SIT officers but the agency said it was "not viable".

According to CBI sources, the examination of Kumar, who was the chief of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), and others were required because the state police was the first to enter premises of Saradha Group post its collapse and that there were allegations about destroying documents.

They said on Sunday, the CBI officials decided to visit the official residence of Kumar for the "secret operation" but "due to deliberate, forceful, physical obstruction caused by the Kolkata police, the CBI could not complete the proceedings and had to return".