Kejriwal, Tejashwi likely to visit Kolkata over Mamata-CBI tussle

Mamata's dharna (sit-in protest) in Kolkata, which she commenced on Sunday to protest against the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) move to enter the house of city police chief Rajeev Kumar to quiz him on chit funds scams,  entered its second day on Monday.

The political development took place on Sunday after CBI officials went to Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar's house to quiz him over his alleged involvement in chit fund scams.

When the CBI officials reached Kumar's residence, they were whisked away by Kolkata police officers.

CBI interim chief, M Nageswara Rao, told media, "Did we commit any crime?"

However, new CBI chief Rishi Shukla took charge on Monday.

Reminding her days as an opposition leader, Mamata started a "sit-in-protest" at Metro channel in downtown Kolkata from Sunday night against the CBI's move. She has been continuing the protest for 13 hours now.

The Chief Minister alleged that the CBI is acting as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi's order.

Other political leaders like Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, BSP supremo Mayawati, NCP chief Sharad Yadav, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu have extended support to the West Bengal Chief Minister.

Rajeev Kumar: Development so far

Rajeev Kumar, who was seen emerging after Mamata met him, was wanted for questioning in connection with investigations into several ponzi scams.

He did not speak to media.

He had headed the special investigation team investigating into the Saradha and Rose Valley scams. Kumar has been accused of tampering with evidence to save several influential people in the state.

CBI defended their action. "As we found concrete evidences against Rajeev Kumar, we had summoned him. As he did not respond to our notices, our officers went to his residence in south Kolkata today to quiz him with all valid documents and paper-works," CBI joint commissioner Pankaj Kumar Srivastava told IBNS after probe agency officials were whisked away from the gate of the residence of Rajeev Kumar and detained in a police station when they went to his residence to quiz him on the Rose Valley and Saradha chit fund scams.

"After being directed by the Supreme Court, we are probing the chit fund cases. For last two years, we have repeatedly been sending notices to Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, asking him to appear before our investigators for interrogation as he was the chief of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was constituted by the state government and it probed the matter in preliminary stage," said Srivastava.

"After starting investigation, we found that several evidences were destroyed or misplaced," he said.

"As he did not respond to our notices, our officers went to his residence in south Kolkata today to quiz him with all valid documents and paper-works. Unfortunately, without cooperating with our officers, police manhandled them and detained them. We will take adequate legal steps against the actions of Kolkata Police," he said.

Counting the CBI, Praveen Tripathi, Jt CP, Crime, Kolkata Police, said: "Those CBI officers told us that they had gone to CP's house for a 'secret operation'. They failed to produce adequate documents relating to the raid or interrogation. When we asked them why they were here and what questions they wanted to ask, they could not give any answer."

Amid media reports that Kumar has not been attending his office for the past three days and has gone missing, the Kolkata Police earlier rubbished the reports and said in a statement: "Kolkata Police condemns and denies such baseless news. Please take note that not only is the CP Kolkata available in the city, but has also been attending office on a regular basis, with the exception of 31.1.19, when he was on leave for a day."

Kolkata Police Additional Commissioner of Kolkata Police Javed Shamim called a press conference to say the reports of Rajeev Kumar absconding are fake news and legal action would be taken against publications of the news.  Kumar reportedly even did not attend a meeting with the Election Commission last week.