Former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar on Monday filed an anticipatory bail petition before the Calcutta High Court in the multi-crore Saradha chitfund scam case, days after a district court rejected his prayer.
The plea is likely to be moved by Mr. Kumar’s lawyers before a division bench of the high court on Tuesday.
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) lawyer said the agency has been served a copy of the petition by Mr. Kumar’s counsel.
Mr. Kumar, who is now the Additional Director General in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), had on Saturday suffered a setback in Alipore district sessions court which dismissed his anticipatory bail plea.
The CBI had claimed that Mr. Kumar is not cooperating with it in the probe and had been evading appearance before its investigation team on frivolous grounds.
Countering the assertion, the senior IPS officer’s counsel said he is not a fugitive and has taken leave from September 1 to 25.
On Thursday, the agency had moved the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM), seeking arrest warrant against Mr. Kumar. The court had, however, told the CBI that it does not need its warrant as the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court have already lifted bar on his arrest in the chit fund case.
Prior to that, Mr. Kumar had approached the Barasat district court for pre-arrest bail, but it disposed of his application on the grounds that it did not have jurisdiction in the matter, as the case was registered at Alipore court.
The Calcutta High Court had on September 13 vacated its interim order granting him protection from arrest. It had also rejected his prayer for quashing the CBI notice that sought his appearance for interrogation in the case.
The Saradha group of companies allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of ₹ 2500 crore, promising higher rates of return on their investments. Mr. Kumar has been accused of tampering with crucial evidence in the scam.
