Officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday arrived at the West Bengal Secretariat and delivered letters to top officials seeking the whereabouts of senior IPS officer Rajeev Kumar.
The CBI officials handed over sealed letters to the State’s Chief Secretary, Home Secretary and Director General of Police. Two sleuths of the agency had gone to Nabanna, the State Secretariat, on Sunday but the security personnel deployed there had refused to accept the letters.
A police officer told The Hindu that the CBI has formed a “very large” team, including technical experts, to track down Mr. Kumar, who himself is a communication network expert. “The CBI wants to arrest him by the time the Chief Minister [Mamata Banerjee] meets the Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] on Wednesday evening so that the process of interrogating Kumar in custody does not get delayed following the meeting of the leaders,” the officer said.
‘Officer on leave’
In response to Monday’s letters, the State government officials said Mr. Kumar was on leave from September 9 to September 25 and they were unable to contact him.
On Friday, the Calcutta High Court had vacated its earlier orders providing relief to Mr. Kumar from appearing before the CBI in the multi-crore Saradha scam. This was followed by the CBI serving a notice to Mr. Kumar the same day. The officer, who is serving as Additional Director General of the State’s Criminal Investigation Department, has defied two CBI summons since Saturday to present himself before the agency. While Mr. Kumar is likely to seek anticipatory bail from a court in the State, the CBI officials claimed they have filed a caveat before the Supreme Court in the matter.
Mr. Kumar was a part of the Special Investigation Team set up by the West Bengal government to probe the Saradha case before the CBI took up the matter in 2014.
The agency has claimed that the senior officer “tampered with evidence” in the case.
