Calcutta High Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to former Kolkata Police Commissioner and state CID Additional Director General Rajeev Kumar from arrest in connection with his alleged role in probing the multi-crore-rupee Saradha chit fund scam case.
The court granted his anticipatory bail on condition that Kumar will have to cooperate with the CBI and appear whenever called. The court also asked the probe agency to give a 48-hour notice to Kumar whenever they want to question him.
A two-judge Bench comprising Justice Sahidulla Munshi and Justice Subhashis Dasgupta granted anticipatory bail to Kumar against personal bond of Rs 50,000. The Bench wrapped up hearing on his plea yesterday after four days of closed-door intense submissions of lawyers.
Kumar moved a fresh appeal before the high court last week seeking anticipatory bail in connection with his alleged role in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam after a city court rejected his plea for protection from arrest by the CBI on Saturday.
Kumar’s wife Sanchita came to the high court and filed the petition before the authorities on behalf of her husband.
Alipore district sessions court on Saturday threw out the Kumar’s anticipatory bail plea, saying there was not enough ground to satisfy the court for an pre-arrest bail in an economic offence.
CBI termed Kumar an “absconder’ before the court and drew parallels to the case of former Union finance minister P Chidambaram, whose anticipatory bail was rejected by the Supreme Court.
On September 13, a single-judge Bench of the high court lifted Kumar’s protection shield from arrest by CBI in connection with multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.
In June, Vacation Bench judge of the high court Pratip Prakash Banerjee granted protection for a month to Kumar when he moved the Bench seeking squashing of a notice issued by the CBI in connection with the alleged suppression and destruction of the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam investigation, initiated after an Apex Court order.
The Vacation Bench also held that former city police chief cannot leave the state of West Bengal till disposal of the case and he must deposit his passport to CBI, granting liberty to the agency to question Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit-fun scam.
Besides issuing summons, the CBI had issued a lookout notice against Kumar and directed all airports and immigration authorities to alert the agency if they spot him leaving the country.
Kumar was heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of West Bengal Police before the CBI took over the case on a direction of the Apex Court. The state government recently reinstated Kumar ,who was removed by the poll panel as Additional Director General of the CID.
