CBI special team to track ex-Kolkata top cop

Troubles seem to be mounting for the former Kolkata top cop Rajeev Kumar, who is evading the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summons for questioning in Saradha chit fund case, as the agency has constituted a special team to trace his location, sources said on Tuesday.

A highly placed CBI source told IANS: "We are constituting a special team to trace the location or whereabouts of Rajeev Kumar to join the investigation at the earliest."

The agency's action comes after the former Kolkata Police Commissioner ignored three summons sent to him by the CBI since Friday.

The senior IPS officer on Tuesday again failed to appear before the CBI at its Salt Lake office in Kolkata. The source said that the CBI had summoned Kumar on Monday asking him to appear before it on Tuesday at 10 a.m. But he again failed to depose before the agency.

Kumar was asked to appear before the agency on Saturday and then on Monday also.

The source said that the agency on Sunday forwarded two letters to the Director General of Police (DGP) asking for sharing the reason for Kumar's leave and his whereabouts.

"The DGP office has conveyed the CBI's message to Kumar and also about its summons to appear before the agency," he said.

The agency's move came after the Calcutta High Court withdrew the interim protection from arrest given to the former Kolkata Police Commissioner in the Saradha chit fund scam case.

The court had given Kumar the interim protection on May 30 and then extended it multiple times. However, Kumar then sent an email to the agency seeking a month's time to appear before them as he was on leave.

The investigating agency had in May sent a notice to Kumar asking him to appear before it and later issued a lookout notice alerting all airports and immigration authorities.

Kumar, who headed the special investigation team (SIT) in 2013 as the Commissioner of Bidhannagar police that probed the Saradha scam, is accused of tampering with evidence in this case.

The Supreme Court in May 2014 handed over the case to the CBI. The CBI is seeking Kumar's custodial interrogation arguing certain documents seized by the SIT during the initial investigation were not handed to it.