The Calcutta High Court on Friday lifted its stay on protection from arrest of ex-Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam.

The court, which asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to decide upon the arrest, told the probe agency that it should justify the arrest, if made.

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Soon after the high court withdrew interim protection from arrest granted to Rajeev Kumar, CBI teams entered the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, South Division, which also includes the residence of former Police Commissioner Kumar and served him a notice to appear before the agency on Saturday for interrogation in the chit fund scam case.

In a jolt to the IPS officer, the High Court withdrew the interim protection giving the CBI an immediate chance to ask him to appear before the agency in connection with the ponzi scam probe that saw thousands of people lose their hard-earned money with some pushed to the extreme point to end their lives.

A bench of Justice Madhumati Mitra refused to extend Kumar’s interim protection beyond Friday.

“The application filed by the petitioner Rajeev Kumar has been heard by the court and turned down, and all the interim orders passed earlier by the honourable judges were vacated and turned down,” the CBI counsel told reporters.

The court had given the interim protection on May 30 and then extended it multiple times.

The judge observed if the investigative agency operated within the parameters of the law, then there was no need for the court to intervene. As a responsible high-ranking officer, it was Kumar’s duty to cooperate with the investigative agency, it said.

Justice Mitra, in her order, said the law does not provide for a blanket protection from arrest as it would amount to unnecessarily interfering with the investigation.

The court said the petitioner could not substantiate that the CBI was harassing or injuring his reputation and said officers holding superior rank than Kumar had been grilled by the agency.

No one was above the law and Kumar cannot seek special protection, it said.

A source said Kumar — presently posted as Additional Director General of the state CID — was on leave at present.

When the CBI officers reached Kumar’s Park Street residence, the former Kolkata Police Commissioner was not there.

“He has been asked to appear before the agency on Saturday, ” a source said.

A large number of uniformed and plain-dressed policemen from the Park Street police station were present at the spot when the CBI officials arrived there at 4.55 p.m.

The investigative agency had sent a notice to Kumar asking him to appear before it and later issued a lookout notice against him in May, alerting all airports and immigration authorities against him leaving the country.

Former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar had in May moved a petition in Calcutta High Court seeking CBI notices directing him to appear before the agency in connection with the Saradha chit fund scams be quashed.

The CBI had sent a notice to Kumar asking him to appear before it for assisting the probe into the case.

The agency ruled out granting more time as sought by the former Kolkata Police Commissioner while contemplating move to arrest the 1989 batch IPS officer on charges of “tampering with evidence and non-cooperation”.

The Supreme Court had on 17 May vacated the interim protection extended to Kumar from arrest by the CBI over his alleged role in destroying evidence in the chit fund case.

An intense drama was witnessed on 3 February, when a team of 40-odd CBI officers reached Kumar’s residence, and a team of Kolkata Police officers rushed there to inquire if they had the documents required to question the CP.

The agency has claimed that the ex-police chief had destroyed the evidence in the chit fund scam when he headed the SIT. It further said the copies of call records handed over by SIT to CBI were doctored.

Kumar is currently an officer of the ministry of home affairs in Delhi. He was removed as ADG CID of Bengal by the Election Commission after violence broke out during BJP chief Amit Shah’s rally.