Former Kolkata police commissioner and West Bengal CID Additional Director General Rajeev Kumar, on Thursday, was granted protection from arrest and any coercive action till July 10 by the Calcutta High Court in the Saradha chit fund scam case.
The one-month protection to Kumar was granted by the vacation bench of the court from June 10, when the court will reopen after the summer break. The bench directed Kumar to deposit his passport within 24 hours of the passing of the order and cooperate with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation.
The court also directed the CBI to send a designated officer to Kumar’s residence every day at 4 pm to record his attendance. The petition would appear before a regular bench on June 12 after the court reopens, ruled Justice Pratik Prakash Banerjee.
A lookout notice was issued against the former Kolkata Police Commissioner on Sunday on the recommendation of the CBI which is probing the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.
Earlier, Kumar had moved the Supreme Court seeking protection from arrest by the CBI till concerned jurisdictional court in West Bengal decides his anticipatory bail plea. The top court had refused to grant Kumar an extension of protection from arrest in the chit fund case.
“You (Rajeev Kumar) can go to Calcutta High Court or trial courts as they are functional. There is no vacation there (in courts of West Bengal). Seek appropriate remedy,” observed a vacation bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra.
Kumar had, in his reason for the extension, cited the strike by lawyers in West Bengal because of which he could not move the court in the state.
Subsequently, he moved the Calcutta High Court on Thursday, seeking quashing of the CBI notice served on him over alleged suppression of facts in the Saradha chit fund scam case.
The Saradha Group of Companies allegedly duped lakhs of customers in the Rs 2,500-crore scam.
(With agency inputs)