Shillong | After questioning for three consecutive days, the CBI on Monday asked Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to report to them again today for further quizzing in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund case. However, the questioning of former TMC lawmaker Kunal Ghosh is over for the time being, the agency said.Monday was the third consecutive day of grilling for Kumar and the second for Ghosh in the ponzi scam case worth around Rs. 2,000 crore. He has been asked to report for questioning tomorrow again, an official told news agency PTI, requesting anonymity.
Ghosh arrived at the CBI office here shortly after 10 am while Kumar reached an hour later, an official told PTI. Kumar left the CBI premises shortly after 7 pm this evening. Ghosh, who left the CBI premises 30 minutes after Kumar, told mediapersons, “I have been asked by CBI to attend this office related to the case. I have cooperated with the investigation and now I am going back to Kolkata”.
According to a well-placed source in the central probe agency, Kumar remained “cool” during Monday’s grilling session. Kumar claimed he had played no active role in the Special Investigating Team (SIT) formed to probe the Saradha chit fund scam as most of the probe was conducted “at the police station-level”.
He claimed that most of the probe was supervised by Arnab Ghosh, the then deputy commissioner of police of the detective department (DD) of the Bidhannagar City Police when the SIT started conducting the investigations into the scam, he said.
Kumar had led the SIT formed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to probe the Saradha scam before the case was handed over to the CBI by the Supreme Court.
“Just like yesterday both (Kunal) Ghosh and Rajeev Kumar were grilled together. There were some confrontations between them during face to face encounter but both remained cool”, the CBI sleuth said. At one point, Kumar asked to stop the recordings of the joint statement and conduct a narco test on Ghosh, the CBI sleuth added. Ghosh was ready for the test but demanded the same to be done on Kumar also, he added.
The Supreme Court directed Kumar on Tuesday to appear before the CBI and “faithfully” cooperate in the investigation of cases arising out of the Saradha chit fund scam. The court chose Shillong as a neutral meeting place “to avoid all unnecessary controversy” and made it clear that Kumar would not be arrested.
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