CBI at West Bengal secretariat, seeks to know about Rajeev Kumar

Kolkata, Sep 16: CBI officials on Monday went to the West Bengal secretariat and delivered letters for the chief secretary and home secretary in connection with former city police commissioner Rajeev Kumar not appearing before the agency for the ongoing probe into the Saradha scam.

Two officers of the CBI reached the state secretariat around 10.40 am and delivered the letters one for Chief Secretary Malay De and another for Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

The CBI, in the letters, sought to know the whereabouts of the police officer and the grounds on which he had gone on a month-long leave, a senior official at the state secretariat told PTI.

The agency also sought to know when Kumar would be joining duty, the official said. The orders of the Calcutta High Court withdrawing protection against arrest to Kumar were also attached with the letters.

The CBI had served a fresh notice to Kumar on Friday asking him to appear before it on the following day. Kumar, who is now the additional director general of police in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), failed to appear before the CBI sleuths after that.

Secretariat sources said that the CBI, in the letters, has directed Kumar to appear before its officers by 2 pm on Monday. CBI officials had gone to the secretariat on Sunday to serve the letters.

The officials, who were told to come on a working day since Sunday was a holiday, had submitted two similar letters for state DGP Virendra.

Kumar who reports directly to the DGP, had sent an e-mail to CBI sleuths seeking a months time to appear before them, mentioning that he is on leave for personal reasons till September 25.