CBI summons Rajeev Kumar's pvt secretary, personal security guards and travel agent

Kolkata, Sep 21: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in search of the former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar has summoned his private secretary Shuvam Banerjee, his two personal security guards, and a private travel agent, Kumar yet again failed to turn up at the CBI office in the CGO complex, Salt Lake in Kolkata on Saturday. This comes a day after the agency issued a fresh notice, asking him to appear before it in connection with the probe into Saradha chit fund scam, sources said. Reportedly, an anticipatory bail prayer on behalf of fugitive is expected to be heard at Alipore court today.

According to the reports, the CBI reached to Kumar's ancestral home in UP where his mother stays.

Reportedly, CBI has summoned Shuvam Banerjee, who is also a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) official, and two personal security guards of the Additional Director General (ADG) of CID Kolkata, Rajeev Kumar.

Kumar is alleged to have suppressed evidence crucial for the investigation into the multi-crore ponzi scam.

Meanwhile, Kumar's bail plea has been admitted and will be heard today.

Earlier, Kumar's lawyers filed for his anticipatory bail as soon as all Saradha case records and court documents were transferred from the special court in Barasat to the Alipore court.

The Alipore court had on Thursday told CBI that it did not require a court-issued non-bailable warrant to arrest Kumar.

On Friday, the court admitted Kumar's plea and fixed its hearing for 12 pm on Saturday. It also asked Kumar's lawyers to serve a copy of the petition to CBI.

The special CBI team had been searching for Kumar, who is now the Additional Director General (ADG) of Police in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), across various locations in Kolkata.

While looking for Kumar, the CBI also visited Kumar's home and spoke to his wife Sanchita, a senior IRS officer and an income tax commissioner, for around 20 minutes.

According to the reports, Sanchita told the sleuths that she had no idea where her husband was.

Rajeev Kumar was part of a special investigation team (SIT) set up by the West Bengal government to investigate the scam before the Supreme Court handed over the case to the CBI in 2014, along with other chit fund cases.

The Saradha group of companies allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs. 2,500 crore, promising higher rates of return on their investments.