Saradha scam: Court refuses advance bail to former Kolkata top cop Rajeev Kumar

In a major setback to former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, a West Bengal court on Tuesday refused anticipatory bail to him, saying his bail application was not maintainable for hearing. Barasat Sessions judge S Rashidi said it has no jurisdiction in the matter as the multi-crore chitfund scam case was registered at Alipore district court.

While the Barasat court is in North 24 Parganas district, the Alipore court is in adjacent South 24 Parganas district.

Kumar, one of the favourite police officers of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is facing arrest in the Saradha ponzi scam case. The CBI, which is probing the high-profile case, has set up a special team to trace Kumar after he failed to appear before it on Tuesday for questioning.

Quoting highly places sources, the PTI reported that the probe agency is trying to locate Kumar and has even written to the West Bengal DGP and the chief secretary to instruct Kumar to appear before the investigation team.

Kumar did not appear for questioning twice in spite of CBI notices after the Kolkata High Court withdrew the protection given to him from the arrest on Friday.

The West Bengal DGP, in a letter on Monday, had told the CBI that its notices were sent to Kumar's official residence and his response is awaited, they said.

In the letter, the top cop had said that through his lawyer, Kumar had intimated him that he is on leave till September 25.

On September 13, the Calcutta High Court vacated its interim order granting the former Kolkata police commissioner protection from arrest in the Saradha chit-fund scam case.

The high court also rejected Kumar's prayer for quashing a CBI notice that sought his appearance for questioning in the case.

Kumar, who is currently the West Bengal CID Additional Director General, was part of a Special Investigation Team set up by the state government to investigate the scam, before the Supreme Court handed over the case to CBI in 2014, along with other chit-fund cases.

With inputs from PTI