KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court on Friday withdrew former top cop Rajeev Kumar's protection from arrest after a month-long hearing on his petition challenging the CBI's summon asking him to turn up at the agency's office and face interrogation in connection with Saradha chit fund case.
Madhumati Mitra, the judge, said in her observations that granting Kumar protection from his arrest would mean intervening in the ongoing investigation by the central agency.
According to legal experts, now the CBI has no bar to take Kumar in its custody for interrogation. According to CBI sources, the former commissioner of Kolkata Police would be served a notice on Friday asking him to come to its office in Salt Lake.
In the petition submitted before the high court, the CBI alleged Kumar was not cooperating with the agency and his custodial interrogation was required. After Kumar's protection from arrest was withdrawn by the apex court in May, Kumar moved the high court.
Kumar was interrogated last month by the CBI but the agency could not take him in its custody because he was enjoying his protection from the arrest that the high court granted. Kumar was the commissioner of police, Bidhannagar commissionerate, and head of the special investigation team that was formed to probe into the Saradha scam.
The high court had granted protection to Kumar, who is now the additional director general (ADG) of West Bengal CID, from arrest over summons issued to him in connection with the Rs 2,500-crore Saradha chit fund scam.
The Supreme Court had on May 9, 2014, ordered the transfer of all cases related to ponzi scams, including the one involving the Saradha Group, to the CBI. A vacation bench of the high court had on May 30 granted Kumar protection from arrest and any coercive action till July 10 in the Saradha chit fund scam case, which was extended from time to time.