Mamata Banerjee (DIPTENDU DUTTA/AFP/Getty Images)The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday (17 May) withdrew the interim protection from arrest granted to Mamata Banerjee’s former top cop Rajeev Kumar in the Saradha scam probe, Bar and Bench has reported.
The interim protection which was granted to Kumar in February would expire after the next seven days. The SC bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also ruled that the CBI is free to conduct investigation into this matter.
Kumar was heading the Special Investigation team (SIT) to probe the Saradha and Rose Vally Ponzi scams but failed to cooperate with the CBI in the matter despite various summons. Some evidence in the matter too has been said to have gone missing.
On 3 February, a CBI team which had arrived at Kumar’s Kolkata residence to question him was detained by the Kolkata police. Subsequently Mamata sat on a dharna to protest against the action and Kumar had to be questioned at a “neutral venue” in Shillong.
He was removed as the Kolkata police chief by the Home Ministry and was made the ADG CID. A couple of days back he was relieved of his latest position by the Election Commission which invoked article 324 over persistent violence and lawlessness in Bengal during the Lok Sabha elections.
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