NEW DELHI: Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, who was recently embroiled in a controversy over the investigation of the Saradha scam by the Central Bureau of Investigation, has been posted as Additional Director General of Police (ADG) and Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), West Bengal. He was replaced by Anuk Sharma as the new Kolkata Police Commissioner. A 1989-batch IPS officer, Kumar is accused of tampering ther evidence in connection with the Saradha scam.
On February 5, the CBI told the Supreme Court that Kumar, who was leading the SIT in the Saradha chit fund scam, had destroyed and tampered with evidence that could frame prime and potential accused persons. The top court then directed Kumar to “faithfully” cooperate into the investigation. The agency had a strong prima facie case of Kumar having committed offences both under Prevention of Corruption Act and other IPC offences has been made out. The agency also claimed that companies like Shardha, Rose Valley, and Tower Group had given huge contributions to the Trinamool Congress.
The CBI, which filed an additional affidavit in pursuance to February 4's order in which the apex court had directed the top cop to appear before the CBI, and in spite of continuous insistence and follow up by it, Kumar furnished only CDRs of the prime accused on June 28, 2018. The officers were detained and taken into custody by Kolkata Police when they arrived at Kumar's residence to quiz him. The CBI had then approached the apex court seekings its intervention in this case. In his affidavit, Kumar said he was “subjected to approximately 40 hours of questioning spread over five days, from February 9 to February 13” during which he was in Shillong, and “continued to join the investigation, responding to each query truthfully and to his best knowledge, despite the questions being repetitive in nature.”
