Show evidence, convince us: SC on CBI seeking custodial interrogation of ex-Kolkata top cop

New Delhi, Apr 30: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to show convincing evidence that Custodial interrogation of former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar is needed in the probe into the Saradha chit fund scam.

The apex court also sought direct evidence from the CBI on Kumar's involvement, especially the data on laptop, mobile phones, or diaries which allegedly contained information on payments made to influential people in ensuring destruction of evidence, said reports.

"Give us, show us from records that this person is involved.. On what basis? You can give us evidence tomorrow. We want you to satisfy us that he had a role to play in disappearance and suppression of evidence," Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi reportedly told the CBI.

The CBI, on its part, told the top court that it will file evidence against Rajeev Kumar by tomorrow. The Supreme Court then fixed the next date of hearing for Wednesday.

On April 7, the CBI had moved the Supreme Court seeking recall of the apex court's February 5 order staying the arrest of Kumar to let the agency put him to custodial interrogation in the Saradha and Rose Valley ponzi scam cases.

The CBI also sought the court's directions to the West Bengal authorities to comply with the court's earlier orders "in letter and spirit" and not to create any hurdle in the CBI probe or try to "intimidate, harass and scare the agency officials" probing the cases.

The agency had then said it needs to examine Kumar and other police officials to recover the material evidence and to investigate into the acts of omission and commission on the part of Bidhan Nagar police commissionerate and SIT officials in causing concealment of the evidence collected by them during investigation.

It had said that the erstwhile Bidhan Nagar Police Commissioner Kumar besides the then deputy commissioner of police (detective department) and other SIT officials did not cooperate with the CBI in investigation and did not help in making available to it all the material evidence in the Ponzi scam cases.

The CBI said there were around 270 Ponzi firms operating in West Bengal of which Saradha and Rose Valley groups were the most important ones.

It said Saradha group collected around Rs 2,450 crore and even after the scam came to the fore, the Rose valley group managed to collect around Rs 2,536.80 crore in 2013-14 from the public at large.