In an unprecedented ‘hot pursuit’ of sorts, multiple teams of Central Bureau of Investigation raided a number of places across Kolkata, South and North 24 Parganas looking for Bengal Additional Director General CID, Rajeev Kumar, who continued to remain underground though he had filed a petition for anticipatory bail in Alipore Court.
CBI wants to interrogate Kumar for his alleged role as the chief of the Special Investigation Team constituted by the TMC Government to probe the multi-crore Saradha chit fund case in 2013. The Supreme Court later transferred the case to the CBI following complaints of insincerity by the SIT.
After Thursday’s frantic search, the CBI continued its look out on Friday raiding half-a-dozen places including resorts, CID and other Government guest houses at DH Road, Park Street, Bishnupur, Dum Dum, Lake Town etc. The officers also visited his house handing over yet another summons notice there. They even spoke to his wife, a senior IRS officer herself.
Kumar has been escaping the CBI for the past one week after the Calcutta High Court withdrew protection against his arrest. The CBI had been complaining that Kumar was not cooperating with them in the investigation process.
Meanwhile, Kumar’s lawyer Gopal Haldar on Friday said that a petition for anticipatory bail had been filed at the Alipore Court. The hearing will be conducted tomorrow and “a notice to this effect has been served on the CBI too,” he maintained.
The Agency is frantically looking for a Red diary, cash registers, pen drives, and other related evidences that were allegedly ceased by the SIT but went missing. “These articles contain information regarding the transaction” between the influential people and the Saradha boss Sudipto Sen, the jailed Saradha chief and other witnesses have reportedly told the CBI.