Kolkata, Sep. 21 (PTI): West Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra on Saturday apprehended that former Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar "might get killed" so that he could not spill the beans on influential people allegedly involved in the Saradha chit fund scam.
CBI sleuths have started searching for Kumar at various places in and around the city after he repeatedly defied the agency's summons to appear before its officials.
The IPS officer, who is the additional director general of CID, is alleged to have suppressed crucial pieces of evidence required to prepare the final charge sheet by the CBI in the multi-crore ponzi scam case.
"It is quite clear that if Rajeev Kumar is arrested by CBI and he talks, several influential people will be in trouble. Several top TMC leaders and ministers have been earlier interrogated and arrested by CBI in this chit fund scam. That is why the TMC government is leaving no stones unturned to protect him. There can be efforts to silence him.
"We apprehend that he might get killed," Mitra said in a statement.
"Rajeev Kumar headed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the TMC government to investigate the chit fund scam in 2013. But after the CBI took over the probe in 2014, there have been allegations that he suppressed crucial evidences in the case in order to help influential people involved in the scam," he said.
The TMC declined to make any comment on this.
The Saradha group of companies allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs 2500 crore, promising higher rates of return on their investments.
Anticipatory bail plea rejected
The Alipore District and Sessions court on Saturday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, who is evading CBI summons in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam case.
Kumar had filed the bail plea on Friday, a day after a city court had said that the CBI did not need a warrant to arrest him in the Saradha case.
Kumar, who is currently the ADG of the CID, had failed to get a relief from the Barasat district and sessions court on his anticipatory bail application in the case.
The CBI had moved the Alipore court on Thursday, seeking an arrest warrant against the former city police commissioner.
The additional chief judicial magistrate had disposed the CBI's application, saying that the agency did not need a arrest warrant as the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court had already lifted the bar on his arrest in the case.
