The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition filed by the former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, appealing for protection from arrest by CBI till the jurisdictional court decides his anticipatory bail plea in the Sharada Chit Fund scam case.
Saradha chit fund scam: Supreme Court refuses to entertain the plea of former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, seeking protection from arrest by CBI till concerned jurisdictional court in West Bengal decides his anticipatory bail plea. pic.twitter.com/dLsQSZHZLV
— ANI (@ANI) May 24, 2019
Rejecting Kumar’s petition, the Supreme Court asked him to approach Calcutta High Court or other trial courts that are functional in West Bengal. “There are no vacations there. Seek appropriate remedy,” the apex court said.
Former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar’s protection from arrest in the Sharada Chit Fund scam ends on May 24. Kumar has urged in the new petition to extend the period of protection. A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, chaired by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, had withdrawn its February 5 order of not arresting Rajeev Kumar in its order on 17th May.
Last week, the Election Commission had relieved Rajeev Kumar from the post of Additional Director General, CID, in West Bengal for allegedly failing to control the incidents of violence in the state. The IPS officer asked to report at the MHA in Delhi. The action from the EC came a day after BJP president Amit Shah’s rally witnessed extensive violence due to an altercation between TMC and BJP supporters.
Rajeev Kumar is the same officer who was at the centre of a high voltage drama a few months back in Kolkata. He is accused of shielding some of the accused and destroying evidence in West Bengal’s Sharada Chit Fund scam case. On February 3, a team of CBI officials had arrived at his residence in Kolkata for interrogation. The ensuing spectacle that followed was nothing short of an unprecedented political and legal drama. Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had jumped to his defence, moving the state machinery against the CBI and alleging that the attempt to interrogate Kumar is a ‘conspiracy’ by the central government against her.
CBI officials were also attacked, heckled and held up by the Kolkata police under Mamata’s orders. After that Mamata Banerjee had sat on a Dharna that lasted for almost 72 hours where she had insisted that PM Modi and Amit Shah are machinating to dethrone her and the interrogation order against Rajeev Kumar was a plot by NSA Ajit Doval. Rajeev Kumar was seen sitting along with the WB CM during the dharna.
Mamata ended the dharna after the Supreme Court ordered the interrogation of Rajeev Kumar at a location outside Bengal following which he was interrogated for days in Meghalaya’s Shillong along with some other accused in the case.
