KOLKATA: The CBI has set up a special control room in its Kolkata office to trace former commissioner of Kolkata Police Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Rs 2,500 crore Saradha scam. Kumar is currently deemed ‘untraceable’.
The investigating agency formed five teams, comprising officers from its Delhi and Uttar Pradesh units, to carry out search operations in different parts of the city and adjoining areas.
The CBI set up the control-room after Alipore court on Thursday lifted its stay on Kumar’s arrest, while rejecting the agency’s petition seeking a non-bailable warrant against the former top cop.
CBI officers talked to Kumar’s wife Sanchita on Friday, as she signed the petition submitted before the court in Alipore on Thursday opposing the CBI’s plea. “We collected her phone number,” an officer said.
The agency initiated the hunt for Kumar after Kolkata High Court vacated its interim order granting him protection from arrest on September 13.
On Friday, the sleuths raided a resort in Budge Budge, on the outskirts of Kolkata, and several private hotels in South 24-Parganas district.
On Thursday, the CBI searched the IPS guest house in Alipore, as well as the CID’s guest house and a hotel on Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.
“Since Kumar has switched off both his mobile phones, the lower-location technology is not being able to track him. We are relying on information from our sources,” another officer said.
The Centre and the Mamata government had been locked in a war of words after the CBI’s bid to arrest Kumar was thwarted by the city police.