Moving the former city police chief Rajeev Kumar’s anticipatory bail petition today, his counsel Debasish Roy submitted before a Division Bench of Justice Sahidullah Munshi and Justice Subhasis Dasgupta that “the CBI is hounding me (Kumar) like anything.” At this point, Justice Dasgupta said, “Go and surrender.”

The Division Bench then fixed Kumar’s anticipatory bail plea, which was filed yesterday, for hearing on Wednesday. Former city police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, moved Calcutta High Court during the day seeking anticipatory bail in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund case. Kumar is currently the additional director general in the state CID. Kumar’s leave will end on Wednesday, his counsel said, and prayed that his plea for prearrest bail be taken up for hearing urgently.

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Kumar’s lawyer earlier submitted that the petition was listed at ‘serial number 271’ before the court and prayed for an urgent hearing of the matter. The court asked him to explain why it needed to be taken up for urgent hearing. Over the past week, CBI sleuths have gone to several places, including Kumar’s official residence at Park Street here, in search of the elusive officer. Kumar’s pre-arrest bail plea was rejected by the Alipore District and Sessions Court on 21 September.

The agency has issued multiple notices to him to appear before it for questioning as a witness in the Saradha scam case. Kumar, however, did not appear before the CBI and has sought more time on every occasion. During the hearing before the Alipore Sessions Court, the CBI had claimed that Kumar is not cooperating with it in the probe, and has been evading making an appearance before its investigation team on frivolous grounds. Countering the assertion, Kumar’s counsel submitted that he is not a fugitive and is on leave from 1 September to 25 September.

On 19 September, the CBI had moved the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) at Alipore, seeking an arrest warrant against Kumar. The court had, however, held that the CBI does not need its warrant, as the Supreme Court and Calcutta High Court had already lifted the bar on his arrest in the chit fund case. Prior to that, Kumar had approached the Barasat district court for pre-arrest bail, but it disposed of his application on the ground that it did not have jurisdiction in the matter, as the case was registered at Alipore court.

Calcutta High Court had on 13 September vacated its interim order granting him protection from arrest. It had also rejected his plea for quashing the CBI notice that sought his appearance for interrogation in the case. Earlier on 23 May, the Supreme Court had vacated an interim protection to Kumar from arrest by the CBI. The agency had summoned Kumar on 27 May for questioning in connection with the ponzi scam, challenging which he had moved the high court, seeking quashing of the notice.

The Saradha group of companies allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore, promising higher rates of return on their investments. Kumar was part of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the state government to investigate the scam, before the Supreme Court handed over the case to the CBI in 2014, along with other chitfund cases. The chit fund scam was unearthed in 2013 during Kumar’s tenure as the Bidhannagar Police Commissioner.

The headquarters of the Saradha Group at Midland Park complex was within the jurisdiction of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate. The Supreme Court had on 5 February prevented the CBI from any coercive action against Kumar and directed him to cooperate with CBI questioning at a “neutral place”. He was then questioned by the agency for nearly 40 hours over five days at its office in Shillong in February.